The wanderer
by Garmadon35
Summary: A high school student just wants to live a life in his imagination. But what happens when he becomes his imagination? Sent to an alternate world he must come to understand not only the reality of his situation, but also himself while being hunted down. (self-insert fanfic)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"And that's time."

Grabbing a bowl from the side I began to pour the curry from the saucepan over the fire. After sitting down beside the fire, I began to munch on my first chicken curry made in this new world.

"Could do with some rice," I mumbled to myself. "But I'm lucky I have these ingredients to begin with."

Staring at what was left of my ingredients I began to recall the family I saved not too long ago and my first day here.

It was just after school, I had troublesome day with a two-hour physics exam, but since it was about electronics, I had felt pretty good about myself. After getting home I went straight to room, throwing my bag into the corner as I flopped down onto my bed.

"Uuuurrgghh," I groaned as both muscle and mind relaxed. I laid there for a while, taking in the soft embrace of the duvet.

Cracking open one eye I starred at the sea of LEGO covering my floor thus sparking an idea for a new build. With the inspirational idea in mind I jumped out of bed, took my leg off (I'd spent 16 of my 17 years with a missing leg half way below my left knee) and got to work.

Hours passed until before me laid a type of quad bike design with what I imagined to be an interdimensional rift gate on the back. Feeling pleased with myself I picked up a LEGO minifig dressed all in black with blonde hair and a silver right hand and dropped him through the gate. I always imagined him to be me.

That's when it happened, the gate and the vehicle it was attached too began to glow a faint light blue and the minifig immediately pixelated into blue cubes then disappeared. Startled in shock I reeled back from the sight before me. As I thought what could have happened my creation began glowing brighter than before.

As I felt my own eyes widen a tingling feeling could be felt in my legs. Looking down my heart dropped into my stomach. I saw that they too were beginning to pixelate and disappear in the same way as the minifig. As I screamed my body began to break up going from my legs to my waist. Then from my waist to my chest.

Then my dad burst in with wide eyes. "What's going on-," as he started with a stern voice before trailing off as he saw me.

At this point the pixilation had reached my head and my lower half had already disappeared. Reaching a hand out I began to cry. "Daaaaad!" I yelled to no avail as my vision began to blur blue.

Before I blacked out I immediately had a thought course through my mind. 'When did he get here?'

When I opened my eyes again I felt like I had just woken up from the best night sleep I had in ages. As I relaxed a little more my memories from before came flooding back. Opening my eyes I jolted up screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-!" I was cut off with a sharp nasty headache.

Wincing in pain I cupped my head in my right hand. For some reason, it felt cold and hard, and since my head felt like I had banged it against a concrete wall I lifted hand so quickly it felt like a bat hitting my head. Before I knew it I was back on the ground with an even worse headache than before. Go figure.

As the pain subsided I lifted the tool of my knock down so that I could see it. That's when my entire world shattered.

What I was looking at was neither organic nor comprehendible. What was on my hand, what it had become was solid iron. Sitting up so fast that it would make any person who dose site ups jealous I inspected my ligament. Without a doubt, this was a mechanical hand made of iron and there was nothing underneath, in the palm of the hand laid a yin-yang symbol. Thinking that I've seen this design somewhere else I noticed the sleeve over my arm. Jumping up I inspected myself.

I was wearing a white shirt covered by a long sleeved black coat that stretched down to my ankles. It was buttoned from the base of my neck to my waist where it parted revealing dark grey jeans held up by a black belt. As I looked further down I was in brown laced boots that started from below my knees, they reminded me of the middle ages. While thinking if my hair was still blonde, I stretching my hands behind my back where I noticed that I also had a hood to go with the coat.

"Well that's convenient," I mused as I continued to inspect my metal limb.

As I rolled the sleeve up I noticed the design to be even more familiar. Tracing the arm to its base I felt my face go pale as I felt the shoulder. Staring at the full metal limb I could only yell my question, "where the hell did my arm go?!"

Panicking in confusion I checked myself for any other differences. As I noticed no other differences with my physic and my prosthetic leg being where it should I began to calm down.

"Okay, okay. Just calm down look around and understand the situation. Where am I?" questioning the reality, I looked around.

I was standing in the middle of an open field with lush green grass outlined with trees. A strong wind was blowing, causing my cloak to flap in it. For some reason, it made me feel awesome. But that lasted only a moment before I got angry and yelled at the sky, "where in gods' name am I?!"

'Is that an eagle flying over?'

Frustrated, I forced myself to calm down. "I think I've stood here long enough," I said. "Guess I have to figure it out myself. Not like someone's going to tell me out of the blue."

Beginning to jog to the edge of the field, I was determined to find out where I was.

 _2 hours later_

I don't know how long I was running, but I ran further than I'd ever run before. Normally I would start panting after the first minute, but now I'm just starting to feel weak, I started panting a while ago. Slowing down, I stopped to take a breather.

"Nothing but….trees….and bushes…this whole…..time," I huffed to myself slumping against a tree. Closing my eyes, I relaxed my tense muscles. Before I closed them I swore I saw that eagle again. 'Is that a lions tail?' those were my last thoughts before I fell asleep.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

I don't know how long I was out, but when I woke up, it was a scream that woke me up. Sitting up with a jolt I listened.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

There it was again. Without time to spare I dashed towards the screaming.

Soon I came upon a clearing and saw what could only be described as something from a nightmare. Before me stood a house completely ablaze, windows cracking under both heat and pressure while beams fell from within.

"What the…..? Oh wait. Is that a griffon?" I asked out loud.

Just beside the house stood a creature with the lower half of a lion and the upper body of an eagle. It's eyes ablaze as it glared at an elderly man lying down. With a straw hat on top and a pitch fork in hand he tried to fend off the beast. "S-s-stay back! I'm warning you!" he stuttered in an obviously frightened tone.

I thought it odd that he would hold a pitch fork in one hand rather than both in this situation, but my curiosity was answered when I saw his left arm. Everything below the elbow was missing, replaced with a bloody stump! I thought about running. I thought about going back the way I came. Turning on the spot I prepared to run.

"Mommy! Daddy!"

I froze. 'That was the scream of a child.' Turning my head around I looked again at the one-sided fight.

Behind the man, I saw a child clutched in the arms of a grown women with blonde hair and chestnut dress. Stretched across her back was a large gash, blood leaking from the wound.

Widening my eyes questions dawned on me, but one screamed louder than the others. 'How can I see this so clearly?'

Suddenly I felt something press against my right arm. Before I could react, I was sent flying through the air smashing though a wooden wall and landing on something soft.

"Ooww," I groaned as I opened my eyes to inspect the damage.

Thinking the worst, I looked to where I felt the pressure. The part of the sleeve covering my right forearm had three big cuts running parallel to each other, but the arm underneath looked fine. "Guess the griffon attacked me while I was distracted," I said while flexing my arm. "Still able to move it, guess I have something to be thankful about this arm."

Suddenly the head of an eagle burst through the wall in front of me. Splinters flying everywhere it starred at me much like a predator eyeing its prey. 'I'm going to die here. And before I even became a LEGO designer,' more of the wall was torn down. 'But I want to live. I need to live!'

"A weapon," I said to myself. "I need a weapon. Like the ones I make out of LEGO." Beginning to recall the design in my head I noted all its details. 'One handed, long blade 70 cm by 10 cm and black as night.'

Suddenly my metal hand began to tingle. Lifting it up I saw that the yin-yang symbol had begun to glow a dark purple. In a flurry of sparks, a black pole formed in my hand. Before a question could be formed, the griffon lunged forward with its beak wide open. Out of fear, and what I believe to be instinct, I swung the pole at the looming terror.

 _Fwing_

There was no sound when I cut it, but before I opened my eyes a loud screech filled my ears. When I opened them, I saw that the griffons' beak had been cut off and there was blood everywhere. All the while the wounded beast was reeling back.

As I looked to the supposed black pole in my hand, I saw that it had become a one-handed sword, 70 cm long and 10cm wide. Completely black as night. Grinning to myself I thought, 'hells yeah.'

Turning back to my foe I saw him galloping towards the trio from before, blood splattering on the ground as it went. "Oh no you don't!" I yelled, picking myself up and chasing after it.

Sword in hand I dashed alongside it, slashing at its legs as we went along. Screaming in pain the beast fell to the ground with wounded legs. Before it could get back up I leaped into the air preparing to run it through. Then all at once, time seemed to slow down just like it did before and very slowly, the griffons wing and tail moved to intercept my strike.

'He's going to knock me away,' I thought to myself. 'He's going to make me miss and strike back. We're all going to die. We're all going to get slaughtered and….. I refuse this. I reject this reality!' "Die!"

With some midair action I span my own body as I fell. Swinging my sword while doing so I heard two slicing sounds and sure enough, I had severed both the trail and the wing. With all obstacles clear, I drove the blade into its chest and undoubtedly pierced its heart. With one final scream the griffon stopped struggling and then grew silent.

"Now be sure to think about what you've done," I said to the beast as I retracted the blade. While caught in the moment I heard some whimpering from behind.

"Mommy, daddy."

It was the child from earlier and she was crying while leaning over her parents' bodies. She was wearing a dirty white dress and had long blonde hair. Surrounded in a pool of blood it was obvious that one of them was about to go into shock. With quick thinking, I threw my sword to the side where it disappeared in a multitude of blue pixels, and ran to the supposed father while taking off my belt. Lifting the bloody stump I strapped the belt to the base of his arm to stop the blood flow then after rolled him into the recovery position (it's when someone's lying on their side and to clear their airway).

Checking to make sure he was still breathing, I concluded that there was nothing more I could do. Examining the mother, I noted that she hadn't lost as much blood and probably just fainted at some point.

"She should be alright with just a bandage, a blood transfusion might be needed for him though," I murmured gazing at the man. Exhausted from what had just happened I relaxed myself and placed my hands down to brace myself from falling over.

'Why is the ground lumpy and squishy?" opening my eyes I saw that my left hand was resting on the fathers' stump. 'Gross. I do wish that his limb would just grow back.'

I was then kicked out of my train of thought by a slight tingling in my hand. Looking at it I noticed that it was glowing like my right hand from before. "Okay, what-."

But I was cut off when the mans' wound began to boil like stew in a cauldron and sparking small red lightning. It became more violent as a white stick come out of the center, then soon followed by the sparking bubbly grease.

"Wait, is that a bone? Is it growing back?" I questioned as the skeleton took shape of first an arm and then a hand with the bubbling flesh covering the exposed bone. Pretty soon everything that was missing had returned in a bubbly state and as it soon calmed down there wasn't even a scar where the arm had been severed.

Picking up my hand, I just starred at it bewilder as the glow dulled to nothing. "How the hell….did I do that?" questioning what had just happened I turned to the unconscious women lying with her wound exposed. "What if."

As I placed my left hand on the gash I chanted, "bibbady babady boo, I say heal." Sure enough the wounded began to bubble like the first time and in no time flat it was healed without even a scratch. "My oh my, I've got some skills," turning to my torn sleeve I rested my hand on the tears. 'Mend.'

Just like that my hand began to glow once again and the seams stitched themselves back together.

"Neat," I grinned while tugging the sleeve.

"Uuuuuhuuurrrr." Turning my head around I saw the dad beginning to wake up. He was without a doubt a muscular man with a slightly trimmed grey beard. The clothes he wore were obviously that of a farmers, brown shirt with a green sleeveless vest over the top with brown shorts.

As he opened his eyes he starred at me with a confused look before shooting up prepared to yell. "Where's the-," but he was cut off with a blur hugging his neck. "Daddy, you're alive!" screamed the girl.

'Geez, I forgot about her.'

"Hannah, what happened? Where's the Griffon? Where's your mother? Who's that man? And didn't I lose my arm?"

"Daddy, that man killed the griffon with this black sword that disappeared, healed your wounds with a purply glow and mommy's then he put his sleeve back together," Hannah was left panting after all that.

'Damn, that girls turning blue. How can she have so much breath?'

"Really?" replied the old man while locking to his wife who looked like she was sound asleep. "Well then," he continued while getting up and turning towards me, "I thank you for what you've done for us today. My names Peter."

'Oh shit, I have to introduce myself,' I thought while looking at the extended hand. 'Shall I go with my real name or an alias? Screw it, alias, alias.'

"My name is," I began while extending my own hand, "Edward. Garmadon Edward." Grasping his hand, I shook it warmly with grins on both our faces till we looked at the burning building beside us.

Long story short, the house was burnt down and almost everything was lost. We managed to salvage some of the items. Peter and Samantha, the mother, wanted to give me something as a reward but they didn't have much. So, I just asked for a chicken, various ingredients, utensils and a bag.

It was then only afterwards they asked me about my eye and arm. Asking what he meant by my eye, he said the right eye looked weird. Confused I looked in what was left of a mirror and sure enough, not only did I still have my blonde hair, but another yin-yan symbol was present. But this one was where my pupil and iris is supposed to be. Saying I lost them both in an accident and had then replaced caused them both to let him go.

Afterwards I asked if I could use their phone. But they didn't have any phones. So we parted ways and now I'm here in the middle of the woods eating curry. With what little information I had to go on I concluded that not only was I in a middle-aged society with possibly no way of getting home. But I had also concluded that I had become a character I created through imagination before coming here.

His name was Garmadon. A being with abilities that I can't remember anything about.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

before this chapter starts, would just like to say thanks to Bicorns' review. You said exactly what I was thinking. This may not be the best story, but I write it because I wont to.

Without further ado, here's the next chapter.

* * *

"This road goes on for everrrrrr!" I groaned in annoyance.

So here I was, I had finally made it out of the woods and onto this dirt road. Winging it I went left. I've been walking ever since.

'I'm bored. Could just start singing a tune to pass the time, shall we? Let's see, 'wake me up is a nice song'.'

Clapping my hands as I went along I started singing the song. "Feel'in my way through the darkness, guided by a beating heart. I can't tell when the journey will end. But I know where to start." This went on for a while as I continued down the road. "-Hope I get the chance to travel the world, I don't have any-," I was cut off when I saw six figures ahead surrounding a horse-drawn wagon. It seemed there was a young boy with a brown apron on and blonde hair covering his face. It looked like he had half a mango on top of his head.

But what really drew my attention was a massive hamster ridden by a big guy in full black armor with a red cape. On his back were a pair of massive hilts which were probably for a massive pair of swords.

Through the time I've been traveling I've been able to assess what my right eye could do. But after a while it would begin ache during each use. "Let's see what they have," saying those words I activated one of the eyes' powers. X-ray vision.

'Nothing but the obvious weapons, except for that hunter looking guy with the bow. He's got a few knives in his boots and-wait, is that a walking skeleton?'

Sure enough, what was underneath the black armor was nonother than a real skeleton. No flesh, nothing. 'Shit, we're approaching. I'd better 'up' my appearance.' Just like my eye, I have learnt what else my body could do. One of which was conjuring assorted items that I have either drawn or created out of LEGO in the previous world. But nothing bigger than a scythe so fat. Conjuring a pair of katanas in sheaths and I rested them by my sides.

Suddenly the guy at the head of the group began waving to me and as a sign of curtesy, I waved back. 'Maybe I can get some info from these guys.'

"Hey there adventurer, out on a mission from E-Rantel?"

"An adventurer? Oh no I'm actually a wonderer. You wouldn't mind telling me where I-." 'Wait, did he say E-Rantel? That's the name of the capital city of the Re-Estize kingdom in the Overlord anime!'

"Ur, are you okay? You seemed to have spaced out," asked a small kid in a black cape with brown hair.

"Oh, no, I just realized something. The names Garmadon, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you Garmadon. My names Peter. The guy with the bow's L'croute-."

"Yow."

"-the big guy is Daine-,"

"How do you do?"

"-this little guy is Nena-,"

"Nice to meet you mister," replied the one that checked on me earlier.

"-the even bigger guy in black over there is Mommon-,"

"Good evening."

"-the girl next to him is Nabe-,"

The girl in question just gave a nod.,

"-the young lad, and employee of this quest, is Niferea Balliard the pharmacist. The giant creature is-."

"-The wise king of the forest," I finished. "He swore obedience to Mommon after the fight in the forest near Carne village."

'Oh shit, I blabbed my mouth to much. How am I going to wrap this up afterwards?'

"Urr yeah. That's right. How-how do you know that?" questioned Peter. The look of confusion clearly present on his face.

Starring around I noticed the others slightly on edge and Nabe had her hand on her hilt. Even Mommon looked startled. 'I'm going to have to make a break for it. Time to change the subject.'

"So, er, you're saying that if I follow the road behind me I'll be heading to E-Rantel right?"

"Yes," replied Peter, "but that doesn't answer my question. How do you know about the wise king incident?"

"Ya know I'm going to go to the other way in a jog. I'll need the exercise." Using my right eye I saw that Nabe was beginning to unsheathe her sword. "Any way, I do believe it's time to leave. I bid you all adu."

As I turned on the spot, Nabe had begun to charge at me. Sword drawn it was clear that she had one of two intentions. Threaten me at sword point, or kill me all together. Drawing one of my katanas I moved to intercept the blow.

 _Clang!_

With blades colliding and sparks flying, we each pushed against each other with hands on hilts. Her strength was impressive. Like I was pushing against a solid rock wall.

'I'd expect nothing less from one of the pleiades battle maids of Nazarick.' While thinking this I noticed that it was easier to push back. 'Either she's getting weaker, or I'm getting stronger.'

Noting this I began pushing back with what I would describe as the most ridiculous grin on my face. With one final shove, I sent Nabe back. As she stumbled back she gave me the most hideous death glare I had ever seen.

"Dam Nabe. If you glare at me like that you face might be permanently formed like forever," I taunted while drawing my other katana. "Or should I say, Narberal Gamma of the pleiades maids," I continued while taking a stance with my arms raised and outstretched to the sides with both swords crossing in front of my face.

A look of both surprise and shock were imbedded into Nabes' face. "How does a roach like you know who I am mongrel?" venom was present in her voice.

"The same way how I know who he is," I replied nodding my head to Mommon.

Clearly irritated with the answer I gave her, she charged at me again with a stab strike aimed for my neck. Using my swords positions to my advantage I swung them so that a type of pincer strike was dealt to the blade. Striking both the tip and base of the blade with such force it caused Nabes sword to spin to the right, ultimately disarming her. With the look of surprise on her face I used this opportunity to spin anticlockwise on the spot and strike her with my left leg to the side of her head.

The impact sent her flying, landing with a 'thump' a few feet away.

"Oops sorry. I guess I used my prosthetic leg for that strike," I said as Nabe slowly got up. The side of her head had lines of red running down the side as blood dripped from a wound on her temple.

"Ho-How can a mere insect have so much streng-," but she was cut off with a pair of blades piercing her arms pinning her to the ground. But the two projectile swords soon disappeared in a scatter of blue cubes.

"Can you please stop insulting me like that," I sighed while admiring my throw of the katanas. "It's getting really old."

With a sigh, I began to turn and walk the way I had come. "Stop!" pausing for a moment I turned my head to see the five other warriors preparing their weapons to fight, even the soon to be Hamsuke looked poised to strike. "I don't fully understand what happened, but I'm going to ask that you come with us," demanded Peter.

"Sorry, I don't have time for that," I replied with a wave of my hand. "Later!" with that I ran like crazy to E-Rantel.

'I may have just made enemies with Nazarick.'

Pretty soon I had made some distance between me and them and could no longer see the small group. Slowing myself down to a jog than a brisk walk I began to think over what I had just learnt.

'Okay, for some reason or another I've been transported to the world of the anime Overlord. A world of magic, monsters and hypocrisy. Here I have the power of creation along with a mechanical arm and a yin-yan eye, while still having my prosthetic leg. Ultimately becoming Garmadon, my fantasy character. And to top it all off, I may be the most wanted man by Nazarick in history. What a pickle-.'

 _Crunch_

Pulled out of my train of thought I spun around to see five men behind me armed with swords, maces and axes. Gazing the other way I saw six more armed as well. All of them wearing either leather or steel armor. Using my eye I saw three more in the woods with crossbows at the ready.

'Highway men hu?'

"Looks like we got ourselves a defenseless boy here lads," one of them in thick armor boomed while waving his sword around. The others chuckled while moving forwards.

'Judging by that guys attire and attitude, I'm guessing he's the leader.'

"Tell ya what son. Give us everything you have and we'll let you go with your life. Or would ya rather feel some pain first?" the leader smirked while pointing his sword at me.

"You're very arrogant to make threats like that when you don't know who your mugging," I grinned while flexing my fingers old western style.

'I've seen way too many standoff scenes.'

Having his pride obviously taken a blow, the leader cringed in annoyance. "You cocky little shit. I was going to ask what's up with your eye and let you live. But I can always ask you about it while you're bleeding out on the ground. Get'im lads. But don't kill him just yet, I want to make it slow and painful."

'Dam that's cruel.'

With his command, the rest of the bandits around me charged with weapons at the ready. As they closed in I decided to make my move. With a grin on my face I back flipped over the oncoming bandits and materialized a shuriken between each of my fingers before throwing them into the group, striking four of them. Wincing in pain they turned around with the rest and moved towards me.

Landing on my feet I materialized a silver staff like weapon with a battle axe head at each end facing in opposite directions. Lifting the weapon above my head I brought it down on one of the bandits' head, splitting him in two.

Spinning the weapon in my hands I moved to attack two more. Swinging their swords at me I used the rapid rotating movement of the two-headed axe-staff to slice their arms into chunks of bloody flesh. As they screamed in pain I swung horizontally cutting both their heads off.

Suddenly I found myself encircled by the remaining seven. As they lunged forward I pushed the axe down on the ground propelling myself into the air while bringing the weapon with me.

"Fire!"

Reacting to the call, three twangs could be heard. Using my eye, I saw three arrows coming from the direction of the archers aimed for me. Spinning my body around I threw the two-headed axe-staff at the incoming arrows.

The projectiles were shattered into splinters as it made contact. The momentum of the weapon carried itself on as it crushed into the bushes creating a dust cloud. Severed limbs and blood splatters came out of the cloud confirming the death of the bandit archers.

Focusing back on what was below me, I fell and brought my right fist down onto one of the bandits' heads. The impact of the heavy blow caused the guys' head to cave in. Now at head level I swung my left leg to the side of another bandits' head, ripping it off as the kick connected. It went flying until it smacked the bandit leader in the head. I didn't see his facial expression, but I bet it was priceless.

Landing on my right leg I noticed my hand still in the bandits' body and had seemed to be caught on the collar bone.

'Didn't think I went down that deep, I Guah-!'

I was snapped out of thought as I felt a sharp pain in the right side of my abdomen and a blunt force landing on the center of my back. Turning my head around sharply I saw a gash in the side of my abdomen. It also felt like a bone in my spine had been dislocated.

'Dam. Talk about handicapped.'

Seeing an incoming mace, I materialized a shield to intercept the strike. As the blunt force made contact with the defense the force caused me to cough up some blood. I noticed the others rearing up and readying their weapons.

'Think, think. Come on what can I do? What limbs do I still have to use? -My leg!'

Realizing my potential salvation, I swung my left leg at the mace wielding bandit. As I kicked his legs and causing him to trip over, the mace in his hands fell on top of the body my right hand was still, in causing the bones to grip harder on me had.

'Aw come on! I already have enough to deal with!'

"You little brat! Die!" yelled a bandit.

'Can't I do anything else? My shield won't protect me from all the attacks and if don't get free from this position soon I'm a gonna die.' The flurry of barrages continued on but most were hitting my own body. 'What else could the character that I designed do?'

Then it hit me. Like a lightning bolt to the brain. 'Matter manipulation. The ability to influence the very matter that's around me or in the same area as me.' Closing my eyes I began to focus on an element.

'Blood. Red blood. The color of roses and the hungry flames of a fire. In a ball of fire everything is destroyed by the flames and-'

Suddenly my right hand began to tingle. Looking up I saw the familiar dark purple glow emanating from within the bloody corpse. Smoke than began to flow out of the wound and the sound of bacon on a frying pan could be heard.

"What's that smell?' I heard one of the bandits' growl.

 _BANG!_

Soon he got his answer. The body my hand was in exploded causing the bandits beside me to be blown to the side. Taking this opportunity, I focused on healing my wounds and in a series of bubbling flesh and red lightning sparks my bones were relocated and my flesh was mended. I then saw my free arm to be ablaze.

Turning to the flames in my right hand, I thought about first panicking about the fact that I was on fire, and that's what I did.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" screaming while running around, the bandits looked on in shock. "AAAAHHH! I'm ….not being burnt?"

As I calmed down I stopped running around. 'This flame, it doesn't hurt.'

"A magic caster er? Guess that explains a thing or two. You know if you come with us-," started a bandit before being interrupted.

"Turn to ash," I said coldly while pointing my hand at him. A ball of fire formed in the palm of my hand then launched at him.

As the projectile neared him, his own flesh began to burn from the heat. 'Dam, is that sire ball like the sun or something?'

 _Boom!_

The fireball made contact and the outlaw screamed in pain as his own flesh began to crisp'n in the flames that engulfed him. It was truly a spectacle, makes me almost want to have marshmallows right now. But soon the flames subsided and in the bandits' place was what looked like a burnt statue of the famous painting 'the scream' (look it up if you don't know it).

Looking at my hand still ablaze I internally sighed. 'The fire is great and all, but I would really prefer to have lightning powers in addition at this point.

Without warning my arm lost its' flames. The intensity of the situation soon began to die and I was losing my groove. "Well that's inconvenient-," but I was then interrupted by a sudden series of electrical sparks that began pouring out of both my arms. "Now this is what I'm talking about!"

Turning my head around, I starred at two of the remaining bandits. 'I think I can smell urine.' Sure enough the bandits had the look of someone who knows they're about to die.

"Please," one of them began to plead.

"No," I replied without a hint of emotion in my voice. Spreading my feet apart and holding my arms out to the side with hands turned in, I began to generate an increase of electrons and pooled it in front of me, thus creating a massive ball of electricity. Then with a flick of my wrist I launched the ball towards the pair.

 _Bffffffff!_

As the sphere collide with the pair scorch marks appeared all over them as their body's were pumped with excess electrons. The immediate massive discharge caused the particles surrounding the impact zone to become electrified as well.

Several lightning bolts flashed out from the surface of the orb. Two of which struck the remaining bandits, burning them to a crisp as well but not as much as the first two.

"Now that, is what I call premium cooked," I mused as the lightning show subsided to reveal four smoldering corpses with their mouths agape in a silent scream.

"Now," I started, turning to the bandit leader, all sign of his previous arrogance now replaced with utter horror. "How should I kill you?" I questioned while walking to him, lightning sparks still coming off my arms. "Lightning related heart attack? Fried to a corpse? Pumped so full your head explodes? Or just melt you with highly induced plasma?"

"Who-who the hell are you?!"

"The names Garmadon. And I'm the wonderer whose also your worst nightmare."

Saying those words, I increased the overall polarity creating more sparks. This increased the terrifying image making him even more scared. "N-no. I refuse to die like this!" with those words he threw his sword at me and turning tail to run.

As I watched the sword approach me, I released a discharge of electricity towards it. The white zig-zag shot through the air, struck the sword stopping it in its tracks where the remaining current travelled through the metal and out the other end. The exiting flow shot towards the fleeing bandit who had turned slightly to face me. Unfortunately, this than resulted in the lightning to strike the exposed side.

"AAAAHHHH!" he screamed as he fell to the ground with the side of his face scorched. The guy was out cold.

As I relaxed my muscles the lightning around me began to calm down before it stopped all together. "That was a close one."

'I wonder if they have any gold?' I thought turning to fourteen dead bodies. "I'm gonna need money if I'm in E-Rantel," I said as I began ransacking one of the corpses. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move in the bushes to the left of the road. Using my eye I couldn't see anything. 'Maybe just a rabbit,' I thought while rubbing my eye. 'Using it to much hu?'


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Interlude: Slain Theocracy

The slain theocracy. An entire kingdom that believes humans to be the dominant species above all others. Under the teachings of their six gods they duties to maintain an iron fist on the population of other races while maintain their own power, both in military and political. The church of this kingdom governs this territory, led by six arch bishops; Yvon Jasna Dacrowce, Ginedire Delan Guelifi, Dominic Ihre partouche, Raymond Zary Lauransen, Maximillion Oreio Layier and Berenice Nayua Suntini, the only female amongst the six. This group is lead be the high priest Pontifex Maximus. Recently they received intel that an immense magical energy was condensed into a single spot on their borders. Then later heard reports of a single man slaying a griffon.

Within a conference room of the six gods, these seven individuals were seated at a round table. All of which were deep in though. Words being exchanged here and there.

"How do you propose we deal with this?"

"If this person really did kill a griffon by himself and grew someone's arm back without the use of a potion, then he may be an awakened dragon-kin."

"We don't know all the details about that incident so we can't make that decision just yet. Could've been simply dumb luck that the beast was killed and the farmer was probably seeing things when he said he had his arm bitten off."

"What about observing him? The windflower scripture already has spies in the R-estize kingdom, so get them to verify this individual in question."

"I've already sort to it. I've told them to look for a man in a black coat with a metal arm and a peculiar right eye."

"And how long will that take?"

"Who knows."

With that response, the room fell into silence. Suddenly the doors burst open as a single man in light leather armor passed through.

"News from the wind scripture spies your excellencies," huffed the spy as he knelt before the table.

"Proceed. What news is there that would be so important you'd interrupt a meeting of the Archbishops!" yelled Maximillion.

"Apologies your excellency. The take away restaurant has been found and they do sell noodles of a wide variety. Also, the individual that we were sent to find has also been located," replied the spy.

"Perfect. Now tell us, has he displayed any signs of power that is worth recognizing?" questioned Berence.

There was a moment of silence before the spy responded. "He-he is without a doubt a powerful being. He displayed incredible agility without the aid of a martial art skill and magical power. He wasn't only able to cast powerful fire and lightning magic, but was also able to create weapons that he didn't have before and heal without chanting a spell. He managed to slaughter a gang of bandits that were from Brain Unglaus's group without breaking a sweat. He spared one with a serious burn on the side of his face."

The entire council was speechless. All of them starring at the lone spy on the ground.

Domonic broke the silence soon after. "Is there anything else about this individual? What's his name and where did he come from?"

"He said his name was Garmadon, but I don't have any information as to his origin. But I can say that he is heading to E-Rantel."

Responding to these words, Genidine rose from the table. "We need to bring him in and possibly recruit him! Lest we lose a powerful warrior to the Re-estize kingdom."

"You fool! If we recruit people carelessly we won't know who we can trust in our time of need. We're not sure if he's even human and bringing in anything else into our kingdom would be to tarnish the teachings of the gods!" protested Maximillion.

"Why don't we just ask him?" questioned Yvon. "Send out some soldiers and attempt to contact him."

Maximillion just stared at him. "And should he resist?"

The room went silent once more.

"It has been decided then," boomed Pontefix. "We'll have a few soldiers from the clear water scripture and black scripture head over to the Re-estize kingdom. Have them find Garmadon and attempt to bring him over to the Slane Theocracy. Should he refuse or be inhuman," he paused to take a breath. "Eliminate him."

"Now, what shall we order in terms of noodles?" asked Yvon.

Soon the entire council fell into silence as the question was deeply thought upon.

"So they really do use straw for their mattresses," I murmured as I inspected the lone bed in the room.

Recently the sun had gone down, so I had rented a room at one of the hotels in E-Rantel with the coins I had raided from the bandit corpses. With a fair amount of currency left over I didn't really know what to do with myself. Soon I found myself inspecting the middle-aged room.

"Huuuuuuuu. Looks like I might hit the hay for the night," I chuckled to myself while yawning. Killing 13 bandits in one day really does a number on one's body.

After getting undressed, removing my leg and standing in my boxes, I found myself in a slight predicament. 'Should I sleep with my arm on, or try and take it off?' Inspecting my arm, I noticed that I couldn't see any obvious signs of removing it. 'I don't think I design this arm with any means of taking it off like a normal prosthetic,' I sighed.

So, I crawled into bed and laid there while waiting for sleep to overcome me. "Ah that's right, Mommon should be facing the horde of undead tonight and Clementime if the timing is accurate. I would love to watch the spectacle, but I'm far too tired to even be bothered." As I said that, I yawned again. Soon sleep began to overcome me.

"Shall we take their bodies back to Nazarick for testing?"

'What was that? A women's' voice? It sounds so familiar, and why can't I see anything?'

"No," replied a much gruffer voice. "We need to hand them over to the authorities as someone to blame for all this. We'll just take their equipment this time."

"As you wish, my master."

Soon I could see who was talking as the darkness began to dissipate. There were two individuals standing outside a giant tomb looking structure, behind them was a giant hamster that appeared to have been hammered into the ground. Surrounding them were a pile of smoldering corpses dressed in dark-blue robes. One of the two in question was a woman with black hair tied in a ponytail by a white cloth. She was also wearing an outfit that seemed to be crossed with a maid costume and light silver armor.

'She looks pretty cute.'

The other was anything but. He was a tall skeleton figure dawned in robes that were darker than the night itself. It had pieces of gold here and there while having two large white spikes resting length ways upon his shoulders. Bellow his exposed rib cage, a red orb resided in his abdomen giving off a crimson glow.

"My lord if I may, I would also like to know what we should do with the human we encountered earlier?" questioned the maid.

"You're referring to the one with the metal arm from the trip? The one who bested you?" asked the skeleton.

'Hang on, is that Naberal? Then that would mean the other person is Ainz Ooal Gown!'

Naberal gave a slight nod.

"Leave him be for now. We don't know how strong he is and considering he knew who you were there's a chance he's a player from YGGDRASIL. As such he may also know who I am. So we will leave him be for now but assign a few shadow crawlers to monitor his movements. I want to know if he's a potential threat to Nazarick."

"Yes, my lord."

And with those words Ainz turned around and began walking towards the temple. As he did everything began to darken and I could no longer see anything

Suddenly, I jolted up panting in my bed. I was sweating while trying to comprehend what I had just witnessed. All the while my right eye was slightly throbbing.

Cupping my hand over it I began to stutter my thoughts. "That that was the graveyard scene form the Overlord anime. That's not possible, right? I was just here lying in my bed. Nowhere near that sight," pulling my hand away from my face I starred at the insignia in the palm. "They said they were going to spy on me. If that dream was any kind of legitimate warning, then I'll need to be more careful from now on."

Starring out the window, I saw the first rays of sun beginning to streak across the sky, symbolizing the break of dawn. 'What did I put in my character description that I cannot remember?'

Rattling my head around I couldn't think of anything related to dreams. After coming up blank I climbed out of bed and got dressed, deciding that it was time to get the day started.

As I walked down the hall I saw someone familiar at the other end and she still had that scolding look on her face as always.

"Hello Nabe, lovely weather we're having."

Seeming that she hadn't noticed me until my greeting, a flash of both surprise and anger appeared on her face. "Yes, it is."

Now it was my turn to be surprised. "You're not going to attack me?" I questioned in surprise. "I would've thought you'd try and kill me after our little fight yesterday. Speaking of which, you seem to have nicely healed from the stabs and kick I gave you."

"I've been ordered by Mommon to not lash out at you without provocation," she replied with the look of disappointment appearing on her face. "As for my wounds, that's something that doesn't concern a mongrel like you."

Thinking of my dream from last night, I glanced around the hallway at the shadows with my right eye active. Turning to the shadow behind Nabe I saw it shimmer slightly with a humanoid figure, not resembling Nabe in the slightest.

'Found you,' I grinned.

"Well that's convenient. Any way I would like to apologize for what I did to you, but you were the one who started the fight," I said while passing her. "Later."

And on that happy note I left her to do whatever it was she was doing.

Later that day I found myself in the local markets and lots of the stuff I saw was pretty cool. Except for the bowls and silverware. That stuff never really interested me much.

"So, will that be one mandarin or two?" asked the shopkeeper.

"Three please," I answered.

All in all, I had managed to fill the bag I got from the farmer. As I made my way through the busy streets I noticed in one of a stores' mirror a group of people eyeing at me from behind.

'Probably just a coincidence. Ainz wouldn't send two parties to spyon me, would he?'

Turning through a wooden arch way in a wooden building, I found myself in wide room with rows upon rows of supplies. In front of the one of them I saw several rolls of paper sticking out of a barrel. Picking out one and inspecting the layout I recognized it to be a map of a vast land.

'Wonder if this is a map of something important in this world. It's big so it must be of some vast plot of land.'

"You got a good eye there lad. That there's a map of the entire continent with both its boundaries and various locations labelled. There aren't that many shops around here that sell the for the cheap price I do," complemented the man behind the counter. He had a dirty red bandana on his head with a shaved face and was wearing a dark green shirt. "4 gold coins for the map."

Starring at the parchment in my hands, I began to evaluate as to how important this map can be for my journeys. "4 gold for it, yes?"

"That's right."

Looking in my pouch to see what coins I had left, I noted that I was running pretty low in turns of currency. "That price is a bit outrageous man. I can get a room at an in for one night with 4 bronze coins. I'll give you 2 pieces, refuse and I can just go looking for a new one."

"Sorry pale, business is business and I can't let you have it without paying the full bill. 5 gold. And good luck finding another that's cheaper"

'Dam that's tough. Time for some word play.'

"Tell ya what. I'll buy it for 1 gold and 2 silver and the rest through a quest. What say you?" that last part I said in a Gandalf voice.

He just stared at me like I'm some kind of idiot. But that only lasted for a moment before he burst out laughing.

"Ha-Ha-Ha-ha. You, on a quest. You're not even an adventurer. What makes you think you can handle a quest?"

"Because I'm a skilled fighter who killed a party of bandits in under five minutes."

The mans' laughter began to calm down. "Alright, sounds like a fair deal. I'm friends with the adventures guild master. I'll ask him to assign you a quest outside the adventures guild and the higher the quest and danger, the higher the discount."

"You're on!" I yelled. As the two of us shook hands we had the biggest grins on our faces.

'This is going to be good. A complete map of the land with a discount and- are those the same people who were eyeing me in the markets?'

Just outside the store, the same group of people who were coincidently following me in the market were now outside standing near the entrance of the store.

'Do they know who I am? Or are they really from Nazarick?'

"So, lets go and organize that quest for you," Havoc interrupted my train of thought.

"Alright, hit me with your bets shot."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"And that's the mission," said Pluton. "I'll be assigning Team Blue rose to this mission. Additional members may be added before it starts, which'll be tomorrow."

I just sat there, staring down at the files before me presented by Pluton Ainzach, the adventures guild master.

Zuranon, a cultist group much like the Slane Theocracy but are focused on worshiping the reality of death. Right now, a faction of this group has splintered off and are trying to create an incredibly powerful creature of the underworld.

According to reports, this Zuranon faction slaughtered an entire village in one night. By dawn not a corpse could be found. It was later discovered that the bodies were taken to a cave East of E-Rantel, presumptuously their hideout. Its' been said that they're using the power of death they collected from the village and number of corpses to summon the creature. The time estimated to complete the ritual is 1 week. There are 5 days left.

'I don't remember any of this from the Overlord anime I know-.'

"Excuse me, are you paying attention," questioned Pluton.

We were seated at a type of rectangular table on the second floor of the guild building. At the head of the table sat Pluton, staring at me with concern in his eyes. I was sitting at one of the sides of the table, across from me sat the shop owner from earlier, Havoc Underson. Turing towards him, I starred at his smug face.

"Why choose something this difficult for me over a simple map?" I demanded.

Starring back at me with a grin on his face he leaned back with his arms crossed. "What, you think this deal isn't good enough for you? This job should be easy for a skilled warrior who killed 13 bandits. But you'll not only get the map for free, but you'd also get half the amount that's paid for it."

"Half?"

"Yeah, half. Half for you for completing the job. Half for me for not only getting you the job, but also giving the map to you."

"Not much of a discount, is it?"

He just grinned at me

"Havoc has a good point-urrh, what was your name again?" inquired Pluton.

"It's Edward. Garmadon Edward."

"Thankyou. Anyways mister Edward, although you'll get paid if you did this, I'm afraid I cannot allow it as you're not an adventurer. Not only that, you don't seem to have the skills for combat and your age is an issue. You don't even have a weapon. As such I'm going to assign Team Blue Rose and possibly Mommon to this matter, should he survive the next mission."

At the sound of his name, I jolted my head towards Pluton. 'Mommon's going to participate in this upcoming mission? If that's the case then maybe I could interact with him this time. I just hope that I can talk with him this time and he can probably help me. I'm going to have to accept this mission if I want any hope of getting home.'

"I assure you, I have a weapon. Even if they are my fists at times I can still kill a man. As for my age, I here that the leader of Blue Rose, Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra, is a nineteen-year-old," I protested while standing up and slamming my hands on the table. "And on that note, think I will accept this job, not just to prove your doubts wrong, but to also save lives from whatever this faction is planning."

Pluton closed his eyes with his arms crossed. "As I said before, I cannot allow a seventeen-year-old, who isn't even an adventurer, to go amidst such danger. Not only that, I have no proof that you are as capable as you claim you are-."

He was cut off with a sudden burst of fire in the palm of my outstretched right hand. The blaze quickly intensified until it was the size of a basketball. "According to your standards, a magic user can be both a formidable foe or a helpful ally depending on how strong their teir spells are," I said coldly.

Pluton and Havoc stared in awe at the display of magic, until he coughed and continued his speech. "Seems you can use 2nd teir magic spells. Impressive. But with the forces of Zuranon you'll need to have mastered 3rd teir at least, and even then, you need to have a master swordsman by your side."

Clenching my fist, a spark of anger flashed in my heart as the fire went out. 'It's like I'm talking to my parents,' with that thought an idea formed in my head. 'If I can't convince him with words, I'll convince him with fear.' Still standing, I turned to Pluton with a warm smile on my face.

"Tell me, guild master Pluton. What is the strongest known healing spell?"

This left Pluton with a puzzled look on his face until he closed his eyes and went back into his thinking position. "The best to my knowledge is a 6th teir healing spell used by the Slane Theocracy. It's said to be able to heal the worst of wounds internally and externally. Even repair mashed up organs."

"Okay then," I started, materializing a machete in my right hand and holding out my left arm. "I'll show you my healing magic in affect."

With that I brought the blade down on my outstretched arm. The machete went through it like a knife on butter in the middle of my forearm. As the clean cut went through and out the other end the blade was smeared red with blood.

The severed limb fell onto the table, blood leaking from the stump. Both Pluton and Havoc were in complete shock, staring at first the arm, then to me and back at the arm.

"Are you insane?!" yelled Havoc reeling back from the sight before him. "Why would you cut off your own arm? You've already lost the other!"

"Hang on a minute, I'm currently screaming internally in pain," I winced bending over and clamping my wound with my right hand. The machete fell to the ground then disappeared in a swarm of blue pixels. "Just give me a sec to heal myself." As I cried, a dark purple glow began emanating from the stump before it became a bubbling heap and red sparks danced around it.

I must say it was an odd sensation as the bone erupted from the stump of my arm and began to form a new one. 'It feels like the flesh is peeling away from the bone as it grows.'

In a few moments my arm had returned, closely followed by the black sleeve of my coat flowing over it. "Ahh. I really should've thought twice before doing that," I groaned as I flexed the new arm. Turning to my associates, their faces were painted white and plastered with fear.

"That-that form of healing magic goes beyond the 6th teir healing spell. Are you even human?" stuttered Pluton. "Or could that be the legendary….7th teir magic?"

"Yes, I'm human and no, that was 8th teir magic you just witnessed."

'Ha! It's so fun to tease them like this. But these guys look like they're about to puke. Funny, here I thought they'd be more afraid of me and starring at both arms more-,' looking down at the table where the severed limb was supposed to be, but in its place, was a pile of ash. A pool of blood was present on the table. "Any of you know what happened to my arm?" I questioned looking at them both.

"It just, turned to ash," Havoc answered, not taking his eyes off my new arm.

"Oh, thanks."

'Do my severed limbs turn to ash?'

"So anyway," interjected Pluton, a slight bit of awe still plastered on his face. "I won't ask if you've stepped into the realm of the gods or how you were able to attain that power, but I still need to assess your skills in a fight to validate you in the quest."

"I'm not going to sign up to be an adventure if that's what your trying to get at," I said. "But if it puts you at ease, how about you assess my skills tomorrow in a mock battle?"

Having calmed down a bit, Pluton went back into his thinking position. "Alright. I'm assigning adamantine adventures to this quest so if you tagged along it should be alright. After assessing your skills tomorrow, I'll place you in the party."

'Guess I can't ask for anything more.'

"Thank you, Pluton."

"Well now that that's been worked out I'm going to have to ask you to leave now," Pluton said while standing up and stretching out his hand to shake. "Right now, I need to attend a meeting with the adamantite adventures about the pressing threat of a vampire. Havoc."

"Sounds like everything's been worked out," breathed Havoc, still looking like he was about to puke. "Come on lad, best be prepared."

"Hang on," I protested. "Pluton, is the upcoming meeting involving the vampire going to include Mommon?"

"Well yes, it is. You're not thinking of joining the mission, are you?" he asked.

"Yes, I am. If I do this, you won't have to wait until tomorrow to assess my skills."

'If I do this, I'll also be able to gauge how much of a threat Nazarick sees me and how much they are to me, and possibly be able to seek help in getting back home earlier than expected.'

There was a brief silence before it was broken by the clunking of armor behind. Turning around, I felt my heart skip a beat. Ascending the stairs was a group of heavily armed men with adamantite plates hanging from their necks. Just behind them was a warrior dressed in full black armor. Mommon

"Guess it's time for me to leave," said Havoc, as he began to descend the stairs with a wave of his hand.

As the soldiers seated themselves, I took my original seating position from before. Mommon sat next to me with three adventures across form us.

"Hey Pluton, who's the little pipsqueak?" bellowed a black-haired man in the middle of the three on the other opposite side. "This is a meeting for the strong, not the childish."

"I assure you, I am strong. I'm one of those who's going to participate in the upcoming mission," I glared at him.

He starred at me with surprise before turning to Pluton. "You can't be serious Pluton. Your sending a kid on an adamantite level mission?"

"I am."

The guy just looked on in anger. "I'm beginning to question your sanity. Sending a non-adventurer is just utter fooli-."

He was then cut off as feeling of cold steel was pressed against his throat. "I've had quite enough of this non-adventurer bullshit," I whispered with venom as I stood behind him with a steel dagger pressed against his throat. "If I hear one more word that refers me to me not being an adventurer, I'm slipping the throat of who ever said it."

"Calm down," boomed Mommon. As we turned to him he lowered his helm with his arms crossed. "Garmadon, we understand that your eager for this assignment. As such I'd be happy to have you on board."

"Thank you for your understanding," I responded, withdrawing my knife and taking a seat beside him. "By the way, it's nice to see you again."

"Likewise."

"Anyways," interjected Pluton. "It's time to get down to business."

 _One meeting later (if you don't know what happened in the meeting, refer to the anime or manga for some insights)._

As we marched through the woods, I noticed a few things. One was Nathan (the guy I almost killed) liking to try and take a crack at Mommon verbally is beginning to backlash at him. Second was Nabe using an incredible amount of self-control from killing him and third was the fact that I can't even remember that made up name Ainz came up with for Shalltear during the meeting.

'I think it was Hapuru something.'

I was currently in a party of fifteen of extremely skilled adventurers, but I couldn't help but feel like that ambush from the anime Ainz had set up was closing in quickly. Turning towards Nabe, I noticed her smirking slightly.

'That's odd, she hardly ever smirks. Unless her master is happy or something that makes her happy happens. Oh shit!'

As the realization dawned on me, I whipped my head around to look ahead of me with wide eyes. Activating my right, I saw the shadow crawler from earlier alongside the road, and up ahead was-.

"Son of a- he's gonna spring it now!" I said under my breath, materializing a pair of silver gauntlets with blades protruding from the sides I strapped them to my arms.

"You say something?" asked a fully armored man beside me, but after saying those words he then got his answer. Three roots sprouted from the ground and drove themselves into his legs. But they didn't fully come out the other end as the roots burrowed though his body like worms in dirt. The warrior was about to scream in pain before the ends shot out of his mouth, waving in the air while covered in blood.

"Ambush!" yelled one of the adventurers before his head exploded from the inside.

"You gotta be kidding," I hissed as I jumped back from a couple of vines trying to grab hold of me.

As they whipped towards me I swung my arms in an arc, blades slicing through greenery. But I wasn't fast enough as one of them wrapped itself around my gauntlets.

'This isn't working.'

Uncoupling the gauntlets and slipping out of the vines hold, I noticed a cylinder of darkness coming straight for me. Weaving to the left it raced past me before striking the trees behind me and turning them into dust. Unfortunately, my right arm got caught in that attack and was currently missing. Around me soldiers continued to die left, right and center as my arm re-grew itself.

"Guess I'll have to play seriously," I yelled activating my eyes perceptive function. Materializing a pair of desert eagle guns (they look like normal hand guns if you don't know) in both hand, I aimed towards the thick undergrowth where the black cylinder came from. Noticing a flash of a white dress and wave of blonde hair, I let loose a series of bombardments, firing without mercy.

 _Bang!_

 _Bang!_

 _Bang!_

 _Bang!_

 _Bang!_

 _Bang!_

 _Bang!_

 _Bang!_

As the projectiles sped into the undergrowth, a pair of pained screams could be heard. Then out of the corner of my eye there was both a blur of white and a glimmer of a sword heading straight for me. Turning to intercept the oncoming attack I prepared to fire until there was the sound of flesh being cut and the clang of steel on steel.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" I cried as my left hand fell to the ground. Drawing back, I saw before me a figure dressed in an outfit crossed between that of a maids' and a warrior's light armor. "So, you finally decide to fight seriously, hu Narberal Gamma."

"Shut your mouth worm, less I cut something else off," she threatened with yet another death glare directed towards me. A sword was clutched in her hand dripping with blood.

"Go right ahead than," I taunted, holding up the bleeding limb as it bubbled with red sparks dancing around it before becoming a full arm again. "There's nothing you can cut that I can't heal."

Lowering my left arm and raising my right I trained the pistol at her chest.

"Please stop," howled Mommon. "We do not wish to fight you any more Garmadon."

After saying those words, he began walking towards us. As he did so there was a flash of light that enveloped him before disappearing and leaving something behind that made my stomach curl.

Before me was none other than Ainz Ooal Gown in his god-like attire, ribs exposed and all.

"Are you afraid that if you fight me, I'll obliterate you all?" I taunted, keeping the barrel trained on the maid beside me.

Stopping a few feet away from me, the flames in AInzs' eyes glowed at me before he spoke without a moving jaw. "Ha ha ha ha. You've got spirit, I can tell that much. But I would like to talk to you about a more serious matter that needs to be cleared."

Resting my eye and deactivating its effects, I straightened up so that I was face to face with Ainz while keeping my aim on Narberal. And yet I only reached up to the base of his collar bone in terms of height. 'Dam I never pegged him to be this tall in person. It makes him even more intimidating this way.'

"Alright. But tell me, does it relate to what I said the first time we met?"

"Yes, it does."

Glancing over to Narbearl, who still had her stone expression on, and then back at Ainz, I bit my bottom lip. "Fine, you win," I breathed while lowering my aim. "Ask away."

"Thank you," heaved Ainz as he straightened his back. "First off, I want to know if the name YGGDRASIL means anything to you, and if so how do you know about it?"

'Alright, this is it. The moment where I spill the beans about everything. But why did he have to straighten up now? He's even more intimidating than before.'

"Y-You monster!" yelled a voice from the side road. "You killed them. You killed them all! When I get out of here, I'm gonna slaughter every last one of you, you fucking traitors!"

Tied up to tree with vines winding around him was Nathan, screaming at the top of his lungs and not yet dead. Apparently.

"Will you just shut up!" I whined, raising the pistol aimed for his forehead.

 _Bang!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 6**

WARNING!

There is a part in here that contains extreme monologuing! If you don't possess the mental power to handle one, proceed with caution!

* * *

"So, Garmadon. Can you answer my question now," questioned Ainz.

Lowering my arm and letting the pistol fall to the ground and disappear in a swirl of pixels, I hung my head low. Turning to Ainz, I took a breath before I answered. "Yes, I know what YGGDRASIL means. It refers to the world tree of nine worlds from Nordic mythology. Or it could refer to a DMMO-RPG, but that definition came from an anime called 'Overlord'."

Ainz tilted his head slightly. "I've never heard of an anime called Overlord before. But the fact that you know what an anime and DMMO-RPG is, it means that you're a player from YGGDRASIL. Am I right?"

"No, I'm afraid your wrong. you came from a dimension with virtual reality gaming in it from the year 2138. I came from one where it's the year 2017 and our VR isn't even close to what you have. See the difference?"

"Then how did you know about Narberal and Nazarick?"

"Let me break it down for ya," I began, materializing a chalk board next to me with a piece of chalk in my hand. "As you know, the plain of existence you find yourself in now is not from your dimension," on the side of the board I drew a small circle. "The universe you originated from is, to the best of my knowledge, a separate one entirely," I drew another small circle next to the first. "Somehow, you and your YGGDRASIL game system have been transported from your reality to this one and has now become real. But you already knew this. But what you didn't know was that the two universes are part of one realm, governed by another," I drew a circle around the two smaller ones. "This governing realm is called the 'control dimension,' and it governs many other realms by controlling the fate of everyone in them by writing stories about them," I stated drawing several other big circles before encircling them all. "I have somehow crossed over from the governing to this realm and I have no idea how it happened."

Ainz just stood there, eyes dimming slightly. Then suddenly there was a burst of green light that enveloped him for a moment before he responded. "So, your telling me, that you from this control dimension?"

"No, I'm from the lolly pop guild. Of course I'm from the control dimension!"

"How dare you raise your voice against lord Ainz!" yelled a feminine voice from the bushes where I shot earlier.

There was a flash of white heading towards me and before I knew it, the glint of a black battle-axes' blade was coming right at me. "[Heavy object]!" I heard my attacker chant.

"Jesus!" I yelled, grabbing the chalk board and switching places with it.

 _Crash!_

The sound of splintering wood was heard as the chalk board split in two and disappeared in a swirl of blue pixels. There was a large thud as the axe drove itself into the ground.

Standing in front of me, dawned in a white dress with a golden spider web necklace covering her chest was Albedo. Bloody wound holes where scattered on her shoulders and abdomen. What she yanked out of the ground was the biggest battle-axe I had ever seen. The pole was longer than she was tall and the head of it was bigger than my body

'Dam, her bust and looks are even better in person. Is she a G cup?"

"Do you have any idea how much that chalk board cost?" I yelled at her, crunching the chalk in my hand.

Albedo clutched her weapon a bit harder while bending her knees. The death glare she was giving me rivaled that of Nabe's.

"Nothing what so ever!" I called throwing my hands in the air while grinning.

That was the limit of her patience. Albedo lunged at me, axe raised while yelling out a battle cry. "AAAAHHHH."

As she brought the head down, I spun around on my right leg and brought the heel of my left on the side of the blade.

 _Clang!_

Knocking it out of the way she was left open and using the momentum I had built up, I swung my fist in an uppercut motion.

As the blow landed under her chin, Albedo's face was jolted to the side, but she still held her footing. Rolling her eyes down to look at me, a trickle of blood ran down the side of Albedo's mouth.

Still in the same uppercut position as before, I grinned back. "I must say Albedo, you're more beautiful in person and a lot stronger too," I complemented. All she did was glare back at me with gritting teeth.

Using the position of my left leg I swung it at both of hers, tripping her up and with my left arm, pushed her down to the ground while falling over myself.

 _Oooff!_

"Albedo! Sees your childish behavior this instant!" yelled Ainz as the two of us jumped to our feet.

"My deepest apologies Lord Ainz!" shrieked Albedo, bowing deeply.

"Mare, you come out as well. I don't wish to deceive Garmadon any more than I already have."

Trembling out of the bushes that Albedo had rushed out from earlier came a small child with tanned skin, blonde hair and wearing a green cape. He had different coloured eyes and clutched a staff in both his hands, dotted around his body were a few bloody wounds from my attack earlier.

'Guess he really was made a cross-dresser.'

"Y-yes L-lord Ainz. A-as you command," stuttered Mare.

"Er, excuse me?" I intervened while raising a hand. "If we're going to talk without deceit then can you please get rid of that shadow crawler. I don't like it watching me. From the shadows~," that last part I said in a specter voice while squinting my eyes.

A confused look appeared on the ones that could give facial expressions, Ainz however just stood there staring at me. "How do you know there's one watching you?"

"Cuz I could see it with my eye," I replied, pulling down the base of my right eye.

 _Later_

"Are you sure you don't know who brainwashed Shalltear," questioned Ainz.

"No, I really don't," I lied.

After a long talk with Ainz about how I came to know about this dimension and about him, there was a slight argument about if my story was true in anyway. But that was all straightened out after I told them that Ainz had groped Albedo on the first day they came here and that I was a bit jealous. Big mistake, because Albedo tried to carve out my face again. Long story short, Mare, Nabe and Hamsuke went back to Nazarick while the remainder of us stood in front of a brainwashed Shalltear.

"Very well," responded Ainz as he looked down at his right hand. "I'll have to use shooting star to reverse the mind control affects."

Stepping forward, Ainz raised his hand to the sky.

"My lord, what is that?" asked Albedo.

"Oh, you don't know? It's an item called shooting star, it allows the wielder to cast the super tier spell 'wish upon a star' up to three times a day."

"Super tier magic? That's supposed to be stronger than 10th tier."

"Yes, it doesn't use any magic points but requires a certain skill set in order to be activated. One that I currently have."

"You would use such an important item for a simple servant my lord? Ah, your kindness knows no bounds," said Albedo as she shook with joy.

'There is too much love coming from her. Too much love.'

"Hear me now ring," chanted Ainz as a series of blue rings encircled him on the ground. "Cure Shaltear of all her stats. I command it!"

As soon as he finished chanting the circles around him shattered.

"What the-!" gasped Ainz. He was silent for a bit but after a moment of shock, he returned back to reality. "Albedo, Garmadon, we'er leaving!"

"Yes lord," Albedo responded as the two of us ran to his side. Standing next to him, a blue light enveloped us before disappearing and we then found ourselves in the middle of another open field.

Moving back and turning around, Ainz began kicking the ground in anger and creating large plumes of dust as he did so. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" he yelled as the green light from earlier continued to envelope him again.

"My lord, are you alright?" Albedo worried as she tried to calm Ainz.

"I'm alright Albedo," Ainz responded as he turned to me, the green light vanishing once again. "Garmadon, tell me. You knew that the super tier spell wouldn't work. Didn't you?"

'Dam it, I hate being the center of attention in situations like this.'

"Yeah. I knew it wouldn't work."

I was then tackled to the ground as Albedo pushing down and grabbed my neck. "You knew! You knew and you let Ainz waste his might," she yelled at my face while strangling me. "Why, why didn't you say anything?!"

'Jeez, overreacting much?'

"Arg, cuz he would've done it any way. Regardless of what I would've said," I croaked as I let her strangle me.

"Albedo, stop!" boomed Ainz.

"But, my lord-"

"He's right. I would've done it any way. Now release him!"

"Yes lord Ainz."

As Albedo released me, I coughed slightly before Ainz spoke up. "Tell me Garmadon. Was it a world item that has affected Shalltears' mind, and if it is, do I have to kill her?"

Taking a deep breath, I responded, "yes, and yes you do."

Albedo just stood there with her mouth agape.

"But I know how much it will hurt you when you kill Shalltear. So, how about I do it for you?" I asked.

There was a moment of silence before Ainz responded. "I cannot allow that. I'm sorry but you're just far too weak to face Shalltear."

"OH MY GOD! Why does everyone have to say I'm weak?!" I cried out. "What is it going to take for people to stop talking to me like that?!"

"I'm sorry. It's just that I haven't seen you in action aside from that little spat with Naberal and Albedo."

"Then how about I just battle it out with someone to prove you?"

"That's actually a promising idea. We might have you battle it out with-."

"- Albedo!" I blurted out before he could finish. "I could battle it out with Albedo."

"I was going to say a few soldiers of Nazaricks," Ainz said blankly.

"Albedo's batter."

"Ur, okay. I will allow it. But we'll hold the mock battle in the tomb of Nazarick," announced Ainz. "Is that alright with you Albedo?"

"Of course, my lord," she replied with a slight bow.

"Now let us go then," said Ainz, turning slightly with an outstretched hand. "[Gate]" he chanted.

Before us appeared a black oval-like void with a series of white lights flashing in it. Stepping forward, Ainz and Albedo disappeared in the portal. Activating my eye, I saw a purple hazy flow coming the gate and heading off in one direction from where it stood.

'That must be the direction Nazarick is,' I thought, turning towards the portal. 'This sure is going to be fun.'

And on that final thought, I passed through the tear in space.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys, I know it's been a while but I finally have the next chapter ready. Enjoy.

* * *

"Wo-ho-hoo! This place is massive!"

After walking out of the gate and I found myself in a colosseum with a more than distinct Roman theme. The designer of this place must've liked the Roman Empire. Though to distracted by the scene before me, I didn't notice the company I had beside me.

"So, this is the human who took on Nabe and caught Lord Ainz's attention as a possible player," mused a voice beside me.

Snapping out of my state of wonder, I turned to face the source of the voice. Before me stood a tall man dressed in a white and orange stripped suit and trousers. He wore black gloves and round spectacles with what looked like diamonds behind them.

"First off, she took _me_ on. And secondly yes, that I am. Garmadon Edward. Pleasure to make your acquaintance," I stated, raising a hand. "Judging by your attire, and scaly tail, I'm guessing you're Demiurge. 7th floor guardian."

The demon only flinched slightly at suddenly being addressed so lightly while keeping his composure with his arms by his side and back straight.

"Hah! He got you good Demiurge," yelled a childish voice. "I'm beginning to like this guy already."

Standing to my left was a child no taller than my waist. She looked like Mare but was wearing a red suit that displayed more masculinity. She had different coloured eyes with blonde hair and wore leather brown gloves that clutched her sides as she laughed.

"Urrgh," Demiurge groaned as he pushed up his glasses.

"And you, are the second elf twin Aura. 6th floor guardian. Am I right?"

"Yep, that's me," the elf said, straightening up her back. "It's nice you meet you Garmadon. By the way is it true that you pushed Nabe back with a single kick?"

"Well, I guess so. Though I can't say I'm happy about kicking a girl so hard that it made her bleed. Even if she is a Doppel ganger."

"A true warrior knows when to be sympathetically when it is needed," growled a deep voice behind me. "That is a warriors' trait to be respected."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"You're awesome."

Cocytus just stood there, a little taken back by what I said but maintained his composure. "Urrrgh thanks. I am Cocytus, guardian of the 5th floor of the great tomb of Nazarick and I welcome you to amphitheter of the 6th floor. I understand you wield a sword and are quite formidable with it. Mind if I see it?"

"Oh, yeah sure, sure, sure," materializing a katana, I showed the weapon to the four-armed guardian.

"So, you can materialize weapons at will," Cocytus admired, inspecting the weapon.

"Yes, if I can imagine it I can make it."

Cocytus was quite for a moment. "Ever tried making a fortress?"

"Yeah naar. I can't make anything bigger than a shield most of the time. I'm thinking it's due to my imagination."

"Well then, try and imagine it's bigger details first before moving on to the smaller one's next time you get the chance."

"That's actually a good idea. I'll try that."

'Why haven't I ever thought of that before?'

"Anyway," Cocytus began, returning to the sword in my hand. "A peculiar design to say the least. Similar to some of the swords I use. Mind if I hold it?"

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm afraid you can't," I sadly said, letting the katana fall from my hand. "Shortly after letting go of something I materialize….it disappears."

Embedding itself into the ground, the katana disappeared in a series of blue pixels. A single slit in the ground was all that showed the katana ever existed. The guardians starred puzzled.

"If that's the case," a feminine voice spoke up. "Why didn't that chalk board disappear until it was broken?"

Coming up behind us was Albedo. Dawned in black armor she held the axe she attacked me with in her right hand and under her left she clutched a black helmet with horns.

'Definitely her armor from episode 3.'

"You mean the chalk board _you_ broke?"

Albedo glared at me, gripping her axe tighter. "You lower life form. If you weren't favored by Ainz I'd cut you down where you stand."

"Yeah you can do that later if you want to. That reminds me, do you know where Ainz is? He kinda vanished after….vanishing."

"YOU DARE ADDRESS A SUPREME BEING SO LIGHTLY!" Albedo screamed, dropping her helmet and swinging her axe at my neck.

"That's enough Albedo," Demiurge said, appearing in the path of the axe and catching it millimeters away from my neck. "Now's not the time for petty squabbles," turning to me he continued. "Lord Ainz has gone to the treasury and has left us to judge the match in his place. Also, I would prefer you'd address Lord Ainz in a more respectable manner from now on."

My head spasmed up and now in a frantic nod. 'Oh my god oh my god, I almost had my head decapitated! Calm down calm down, he said 'the treasury' right? Didn't Ainz go there before fighting Shalltear to fight Shalltear? Oh god, is he going to fight even if I best Albedo in this fight? _If_ I best Albedo in this fight.'

"So you best fight hard!" Mare squealed, doing the peace sign in both hands.

"Anyway," Demiurge interrupted, releasing the axe blade and pushing up his glasses. "We'll remain in the stadium and judge from there. Best of luck to the both of you."

Turning to face the other way, Demiurge, Mare and Cocytus began walking towards the edge of the arena. Only to jump the rest midway.

"Now then," Albedo started, picking up her helmet and strapping her it on. "Your're going to learn why I'm the overseer of Nazarick and why little no gooders like you never disrespect the great Lord Ainz and the lady Albedo!"

Charging towards me she held her axe back, preparing to slice me in two.

"I still think you're hot."

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

With a sudden burst of rage, she swung the axe faster than I could see it.

 _Shing_

It felt like a really bad stomach cramp as the axe cleaved me in two, the top half of my body slowly turning over as I fell.

'Ah-ha-ha-h-ow! Dam this hurts. She's even faster than in the anime. But I bet she's not faster than my eye!'

Upside down now I raised my arms and landed while regenerating my lower half with pants and boots. Seeing my opening I brought my left leg down on Albedos head.

 _Clang!_

The force of the blow knocked her down forward and crashing into the ground. The tremor created caused me to lose my balance and fall on my back.

Slightly dazed I activated my eye just in time to see the glint of a blade being brought down on me. Creating a silver halberd in both hands I moved to intercept the strike. With the blow making contact my arms were jarred in to the ground.

"Aha!"

"You have quick reflexes, I'll give you that much," Albedo said, looming over me while pressing down. "But you're still nothing but a lower life form compared to me. You can't- AAAAHHHHH!"

Cut off, she screamed in pain with blue sparks of electricity pulsing out of her. Concentrating the electricity into my hands, I pumped her full of volts through the contacting metal halberd and axe.

"Will you stop talking like that!" I yelled, pushing her to the side.

Scrambling to my feet I held the halberd aloft in both hands. Albedo looking like she was unfazed, held her axe low, ready to charge.

"Hey um, I know this is sudden, but um. You're close with the pleadias maids, aren't you?"

"What's it to you lower life form," Albedo snarled, yellow eyes shining through the helmets slits.

"Well I've got the hots for one of them and I was wondering if you think I've got a chance with her?"

This threw Albedo off balance in both surprise and shock. "How dare you talk of the maids that way! You are the most idiotic delusionist I've ever met," she said, bending her knees. "After I'm done with you, you won't have a chance with anything ever again. [Lightning pace]!"

Chanting her spell, Albedos feet glowed a light blue, in a flash she disappeared from sight. But my eye was able to follow her movements.

Darting to the side I avoided a down strike of a lightning quick blade crashing into the ground. Swinging my own weapon at her chest though the opening it was met with a harsh

 _Clang!_

Holding her axe vertical with the head still buried in the ground, Albedo was using the pole of her axe to defend herself against my halberd. Yanking the axe out of the ground she pared away my weapon before spinning clockwise on the spot and brining the axe head around aimed for the side of my abdomen.

"[Heavy strike]!" she chanted.

Having only enough time to bring my right arm to defend after being thrown off balance, the axe head crushed into the metal as it made contact. The brute force of the blow sent me flying across the ring, tumbling across the ground and coming to a grinding halt. My hood fell over my head as I laid sprawled on the ground in a cloud of dust.

"Urrrrrgh. Dam that was rough-!"

Click click.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" screaming in pain I glanced down at my left arm. The cloaks sleeve had been torn off during the tumble and the arm itself had been twisted in such a way that it looked like a cheese twisty from my world.

It was dislocated, bending back from the elbow and snapped in several places. The fingers were no different. I wouldn't even dare look at my shoulder.

'That tumble was worse than I thought!'

Red sparks danced around both my arms as the healing took effect. Wincing, the pain intensified as my arms put themselves back together.

"Alright," I yelled getting up and flexing my arms. "Shit just got serious!"

Turing to face Albedo, I took off my torn coat and dropped it next to me, revealing both arms and my white shirt stained red with blood.

'I'll need a new shirt after this, or just send it through the wash.'

Materializing a soft ball in hand I set it ablaze before hurtling it towards Albedo, then firing a burst of frost after it. Before it could dematerialize in front of Albedo the fiery projectile was slammed with the blast of frost.

 _Pfffffffssssssssss_

A plume of steam enveloped Albedo, growing rapidly as the frost evaporated. Using the steam as cover I dashed towards the cloud with my eyes x-ray aspect active and a pair of materialized katanas in both hands.

"[Howling wind]!"

A gust of wind erupted from within the steam cloud, revealing Albedo bringing her axe down on my head.

Raising both katanas in front of me I caught the strike in a pincer position. The blade slowly got closer as I lost strength in my shaking left arm.

'Guess that heavy strike spell she used earlier hasn't worn off. I'm suffering from fatigue here. Maybe if I shocke-.'

"[Maximise magic, chain dragon lightning]!"

"AAAAAHHHHH!" screaming in agony electricity gushed through my body with thick lightning bolts spilling out of me.

'I -It feels like my eye balls are about to burst!' gritting my teeth, I rattled my brain around on the physics of electricity. 'Lighting is generated due to an overload of electrons in an object and strikes anything that has a lower electron potential. In this case Albedo has more electrons than me. It's flowing like a stream and when it does- I'VE GOT IT!'

Releasing my left katana, the axe blade guided by my right and drove into my shoulder. Pushed down on one knee I mustered the strength to grip onto the axe and skewing the ground with my right katana.

The lightning sparks poured through the katana and into the ground. The current intensified as it flowed through me with pain intensifying and my flesh burning from the inside out. My reactive healing wasn't able to keep up with the constant damage.

If I had a mirror, I'd swear I'd look like Anikan right now from Star wars Revenge of The Sith (number three).

"YAAAAAAA-HA-HA-HA- HAAAA!"

With my flesh burning and my eye aching Albedo looked down at me, her golden eyes glowing furiously through her visor. With my eye, I could see that she was giving a toothy grin under her helmet.

'I -I -I hope m-m-my th-theory is c-c-correct. Teriyaki chicken,' unable to think straight the pain began to slowly subside, the lightning sparks began to slowly disappear.

Soon the pain of being electrocuted left completely along with the overflowing electrons, except the pain from healing. My skin felt like fried bacon and something warm was running down the side of my face. Ignoring them I focused on the current situation wedged in my shoulder.

'Alright, phase two. Ahhh it hurts when I blink.'

Releasing my katana and slamming my right hand into Albedos abdomen, I used what strength I had left and began sending volt after volt into her armor. The current pulsed in it before flowing through the gauntlets, the axe and back into me through the axe head in my shoulder.

"Lost hope, Garmadon? Such a feeble attempt when you know you've failed," Albedo mocked, raising a fist. "[Heavy strike]."

Chanting her spell Albedo began hammering me on the right shoulder. Each beating nearly tor it off if it weren't for the red sparks dancing ferociously between each strike.

'Almost there...'

The onslaught continued. My arm was having less and less time to heal, but the armor was certainly getting warmer. Steam began to leak from my right hand.

'Almost there….'

"Now prepare to die, human," Albedo snarled, raising her fist once more. "You shall die for your incompetence! Why is my armor feeling warmer?"

"Now!" I screamed, letting loose a burst of frost in place of the volts.

 _Pffffffsssss!_

A cloud of steam erupted from where my hand was. Stunned by the sudden burst of steam, Albedo stopped her pounding. Using the moment of confusion, I pulled my arm back and rammed my fist into her abdomen.

 _Crink!_

Crumbling under the blow, Albedos armor caved in with my fist pounding into her gut.

"Oooof!" she gasped, yanking the axe out of my shoulder and jumping back a bit. Looking down at her armor, she pattered a round hole at her abdomen, which revealed white clothing underneath. "Ho-how is this possible?! My armor was given to me by a supreme being, how could a lower life form, a mere human, cause so much damage?!"

"Ha-ha, it's quite simple really," wheezing, I shakenly got to my feet with my wounds healing. "Your armor may be resilient to physical, and possibly magical attacks, but it's still made of metal. That means it's subject to the laws of electricity."

"What does that have to do with anything? And what are these 'laws of electricity'?"

"Remember when I drove my katana into the ground? It increased the current flowing coming from you and not only caused your mana to be depleted quicker, but also heated you armor up. After that your armor wasn't hot enough so I sent more electricity through it, which traveled through the axe and back into me." I announced, tapping my left shoulder. "Since the current went from you to me without any resistance it caused something called a 'short circuit'. Heating your armor up even more. After becoming ragingly hot, all I had to do was rapidly reduce the temperature for it to become brittle as hell!"

Shocked and enraged, Albedo held her axe aloft and prepared to charge. "That's cheating, and that's all humans are good foooooorrrrrr!" crying out she charged, breaking the ground as she did. "[Fallen strike]!"

Materializing a desert eagle gun I aimed for the hole in the armor.

 _Tuch!_

"AAAAAHHHHH!" a flash of white enveloped my vision before being replaced with excruciating pain, like a stick was shoved in my eye and was swirled around.

'WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!'

"Toooo SLOW!" Albedo yelled.

I couldn't see what happened, but an immense pressure was pressed against my chest before I was flung to the other side of the arena, smashing into the wall.

 _Boom!_

Opening my eyes, I found myself wedged in the wall, a gash running up my chest with a purple aura pulsing in it.

'I-I can't move and-and I can't see out of my right eye. What the hell is this thing in my chest?!'

With my healing taking effect, and my wounds closing, I managed to move my left hand in front of my right eye. But the purple aura remained.

'I definitely can't see out of it. What's this? Blood? So that's what the warm feeling on the side of my face from earlier was. Blood was coming from my eye?! That can't be healthy.'

Pulling myself out of the wall and landing on my feet, a jolt of pain shot though my legs. Falling onto my front, the rest of my body throbbed with the same pain.

'I thought my healing was supposed to take care of problems like this? And yet I can still feel muscle pain?'

Flexing my fingers, I noted that I could still manipulate matter, but it hurt like a bitch to do so. A shadow loomed over me followed by something cold being pressed against the back of my neck.

"Feeling the effects of 'fallen strike' yet?" Albedo growled, straining my neck I turned to look up at her. "The spell I used causes your health, stamina and mana to reduce over a certain period of time. If it's active long enough it can kill you."

'Albedo. You may be hot as hell, but now you're cheating.'

Raising her axe, I still couldn't move a muscle. "Goodbye Garmadon. Looks like Ainz will no longer be needing you." With that, she brought her axe down on my neck.

Blasting a blaze of fire out of my hands and feet, I was propelled out of the path of the swing.

 _Shuunng!_

"AAAAHHHHH!" 'I'm screaming way to much in this fight. I might lose my voice after this.'

Tumbling to the ground after the sudden propulsion the searing pain of my legs growing back flooded my senses. The fallen strike effects continued to sap away my stamina.

'I, I can't win this,' I thought rolling onto my back. 'I may have created this character, but even he has limits.' _Sniff_. 'And now I'm crying. That's just plain pathe-e-etic.'

Closing my eyes, I let the tears run from my eyes. Raising my hand in the air, I croaked out my words. "I surrender."

Still crying, Albedo made her way over to me and stood above me. Opening my eye it was met with hers. Albedos helmet was no longer on her head.

"You think you can just give up, after everything you pulled?" she hissed, eyes shooting daggers. "When I said you'd learn why no one disrespects me, I didn't mean that you'd get a future to use it in. I meant that that it's be the final thing you'd know in this life."

Raising her axe above her head, she glared down at me with the intent to kill. An ear-to-ear grin was spread across her face.

'I-I never thought she would be this heartless to anyone not from Nazarick,' I thought, my body feeling heavier and heavier.

"The reality of the world can be a cruel thing. Goodbye, human," Albedo said, brining the axe down on my neck.

 _Tchiing!_

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Screw reality, I make my own."

* * *

Okay, just a heads up, the next chapter won't come out for a while due to all my school work. Also, I have a few I ideas on how the next chapter is going to play out but I would also like your help and thoughts on the matter. I hope the next one is to your liking, Garmadon35 out.

P.S. Garmadon Edward has one more ability that he has yet to remember.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Interlude: Slain Theocracy

In E-Rantel the markets were packed, hordes of people ran through streets outlined with stores selling whatever anyone may want. Throughout the city, the river of people gathered and seperated, so it wouldn't be unusual for four cloaked figures to meet up in an alley, would it?

"What do you mean you've lost them?!"

"I mean I've lost sight of them. I can't make it any clearer than that!"

"You're supposed to be the most in depth with observation magic out of all the godkin in the Black Scripture. How could you lose sight of one person, let alone an entire party of adamantite warriors?"

"Can you please stop talking an let me think, I don't know how. All I know is that there's a powerful barrier keeping me from watching."

"And they call you the Thousand Leagues Astrologer."

"HEY!"

"Pipe down you two," hissed another cloaked figure, moving down the alley towards them. "There's no point in arguing. If Thousand Leagues can't find our target then we'll have to look for other means to get him. So let's sit tight and wait for the rest to regroup with us."

"I guess you're right," sighed Thousand Leagues, going back to chanting her observation spell.

People always got angry with her when she made a mistake, even if it wasn't her fault, and there wasn't always someone to defend her. Even before she joined the Black Scripture, people always talked down to her when she made mistakes. But back then she wasn't known as Thousand Leagues Astrologer, back then she was known as-.

"There here," said another cloaked figure by the alley entrance.

Four more hooded figures in cloaks appeared at the alley's entrance before moving in.

"Is this place secure?"

"Yes, don't worry. I've surveyed the area and set alarm spells to go off if anyone's listening in," assured Thousand Leagues.

"That's good to hear," she replied, pulling down her hood to reveal a women's face with chestnut hair tied in a ponytail hanging down one shoulder. Her face showed she was in her late 20's. "We've got orders from the cardinals. Your team is to still locate Garmadon, but you'll be doing whatever it takes to recruit or kill him. Our team is to inspect the Great Forest of Tob. Apparently the creatures are running rampid throughout it now that the Wise King of the forest has been taken out."

Thousand Leagues was speechless. "How can they expect the four of us to do this on our own? We don't even know how strong Garmadon is. We need to ask their holiness to spare more soldiers for this, wasn't the rest of the Black scripture sent here on another assignment recently?"

"They were, but they've been forced to retreat after an encounter with a vampire."

"What?!"

"Sssshhhh! Not so loud. Don't fear, they've immobilized the creature with the downfall of castle and country, so it should be safe. Anyway, the higher-ups can't send any more people into the kingdom with fear of stirring suspicion."

"What about Arnals team?"

"They're checking out the E-Rantel cemetery. There's a chance Clementime was involved with the zombie incident last night."

"That bitch," hissed Thousand Leagues, venom in her voice as she recalled the times Clementime mocked and bullied her when she was still with the Theocracy. In those days, Clementime picked on Thousand Leagues every time she was researching or practicing spells in the cathedral courtyard.

"Brilliant detonation!"

 _Kabooffffssss!_

A spark flashed a brilliant crimson in front of Thousand Leagues before sizzling to nothing. "Again?" she sighed, slumping in defeat. "Aren't I doing it right? Raise your arm, chant the spell, focus mana into hand and watch it burn."

"Having trouble, Thousand Fails Neet?" cackled a voice.

Thousand Leagues cranked her head to the side in disgust to see the orange haired social-path of the Black Scripture coming towards her. "What do you want Clementime? I'm busy, and it's Thousand Leagues Astrologer. _Crazy bitch._ " (That last part was said under her breath).

"Yeah, but that name doesn't suit you. I wonder if it's because you're a thousand leagues behind every magician or something, hmhmhm!"

"Can you please go. I've had it up to here with your taunting and I'd rather practice magic to help defend humanity, rather than boast about it."

"Hm. Maybe humanity isn't worth saving. I mean, most of them are sooo weak. Perhaps small fry don't deserve protection,"Clementime mused, placing an armoured finger under her chin as though in thought. "I hear there's a small family on the outskirts of the kingdom, that's quite close to any monster zones. I mean, if they're going to live so close to inhumans then chances are they're traitors-"

"YOU LEAVE THEM ALONE!" Thousand Leagues screamed at the taunting cunt. "They live in constant fear monsters! It's up to us to defend people like them, not cast them aside like collateral."

"But they _are_ collateral. It's not like they're you family."

"But they are my family."

An ear-to-ear smile appeared on Clementime's face as she starred at Thousand Leagues with malice in her eyes. It was the same look she would give killing a monster. "I know."

"Thousand Leagues Astrologer! Hey! Are you with us?"

"Huh," snapping out of her out of her flash back, Thousand Leagues stared blankly at the chestnut haired girl. "O-oh yeah, yeah I'm good, just having a flashback moment."

"Well alright then," she said with a hint of concern. "Anyway, bottom line is is that the Theocracy can't send more troops. You'll have to deal with this with what you have. We'll be heading out now, best of luck. And when I get back, you'll have to show me how you create clothes with those illusion spells of yours."

With a cheeky smirk on her face, the woman pulled up her hood. The two teams left the alley and went their separate ways.

 _Later in the forest._

"It's a mess here," Harold heaved.

The team of four stepped over torn bodies and ragged heaps, investigating the sight of the slaughter. Thousand Leagues team had managed to follow the Adamantite teams trail, and were prepared for a fight if the need arose. But they hadn't expected that same team to have kicked the bucket long before gotting there with Garmadon nowhere in sight. For fear and paranoia of the situation, Thousand Leagues was keeping her cloak illusion spell on, but everyone else decided to take their real ones off.

'Who, who would massacre innocent humans like this? I know they're from another country, but still..,' Thousand Leagues wondered, standing in front of a corpse tied to a tree with vines wrapped around him. A round hole the size of a coin leaked blood down his forehead. 'Garmadon wouldn't do this, would he?' she thought, turning to her other teammates who were inspecting the corpses.

"Looks like the environment went-up and turned on these guys. I mean, there's no way this vine would naturally go up this guy's ass and out his mouth. I'm guessing nature magic." Harold Kipfler, a Clearwater Scripture member. Skilled at dual weilding, he was top of his detective classes during training and takes in all variables of a situation. He may be respected in the theocracy, but when it comes to finding out who ate the rest of his chock-chip cookies last week, everyone's laughing on the inside.

"Ha, if Garmadon really is behind this massacre, then by orders we can crack his skull. I'm going to enjoy this." Halitosis Odor, a dark skinned muscular man of the Holocaust Scripture with a Mohawk. His primary weapon is an axe and knows a few more martial art skills than Harold and is almost equally as smart. But since he likes the heat of battle he not only loses sight of an objective from time to time, but people often think of him as a sane Clementime. That's also partially the reason why the cardinals allowed him to join Thousand Leagues team, as extra fighting power.

"Laurissa will you please stop feeling that corpse up and find out where we're supposed to go! It's weird," Thousand Leagues complained. Laurissa Eshavalia, a Clearwater scripture member with a quiet, and very independent, personality. A short, pink haired, girl with gold outlined sapphire armour and wielding an estoc (a giant needle sword), one would fear her as a silent killer on the battle field. Well, she would be if she wasn't, by nature, a huge pervert.

Turning back to the bodies, Thousand Leagues frowned in thought. 'I know this is odd, but it looks like we're missing a few corpses.'

"Thousand," Harold called, knocking her out of her train of thought. "Laurissa's, apparently, found a trail leading away from this sight."

Both turned to see the pink haired pervert squatting by a trampled path leading away from the blood bath. Laurissa turned to face them before standing up and heading down it.

"Oh, yes! We got a lead," laughed Halitosis, following Laurissa.

"Laurissa, Halitosis! Come on, don't go off like that! You know my surveillance magic won't work in this bounded field!" Thousand Leagues cried out, jogging after the pair with Harold close behind. "Jeez, it's like I'm looking after twelve year olds."

"Huh, well I'm sure the six gods put you in charge of this team because you can tolerate them," joked Harold as he kept pace.

"S-shut up, it may have been the will of the gods, but that doesn't mean I can tolerate them forever."

"Yeah. Hey, Thousand Leagues, I just want to say I'm sorry about yelling at you in the alley earlier. I understand that whoever killed those warriors is in league with someone powerful enough to block your observation magic," Harold confessed, looking back on the path they came.

Thousand leagues looked ahead with a spark of gratitude in her heart. "Thanks."

Eventually the two caught up to the rest of the team. The four of them kept moving through the forest until Thousand Leagues began to feel a sense of dread, almost as though she had eaten something and was getting indigestion because of it.

"Hold up, I'm sensing a powerful presence up-ahead," she worriedly called out.

The group slowed down before ducking low behind undergrowth. "Where's the threat?" asked Halitosis, hefting his axe off his back. Laurissa and Harold followed suite by preparing their own weapons.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Thousand Leagues Astrologer, what's the problem?" Harold asked.

A look of shock was cemented on her face as she turned to the side and pushed through the branches. In the middle of a field stood alone petit figure with silver hair tied in a ponytail surrounded by burnt grass and charred earth. She was in a plump violet dress outlined with frilly crimson. With a lance in one hand, her eyes and skin seemed dead as she stood still.

"Alright, I've had about enough of this. What has got you so worked up?" Harold argued, looking over the shrubbery. "Well that's weird. I never pegged you as someone who'd be scared of a little girl in the middle of a field."

"Get down you idiot!' hissed Thousand Leagues, jumping up and brining him down.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Harold complained, pushing her off.

"That 'little girl', is giving off the strong magical presence I'm sensing," she glared at the silver haired swordsman.

Harold's face distorted into one of surprise and confusion, starring back at the formally dressed loli. "This trail led us here. So do you think she's connected to Garmadon?"

"I'm not sure," Thousand Leagues murmured. 'What do we do?' She sat in thought, occasionally remerging through her side pouch. 'The best thing to do, would be just to leave, right?'

In her panicked state, something pocked her on the shoulder. The sudden surprise knocked her over, but fortunately she was able to keep herself from screaming.

Halitosis looked down at her with concern, a finger held to his lips. "We have a slight problem. I'm not sure what it is, but something black and demonic looking has shown up on the field."

"What?" Thousand Leagues pulled herself up, looking over the bush her eyes widened in astonishment and fear. "W-What the hell is that?"

Close to the outlining of the field, near the trees, a dark oval hovered in the air. Streaks of white streamed throughout the dark void. The team looked on in fear.

"Hey, Thousand Leagues, do you know what kind of tierd magic that is?" Harold asked.

"N-No, I don't - wait, there's something coming out of it," she stuttered.

Back on the field, a silver hand began stretching out of the oval, followed by a dark sleeve. Pretty soon the rest of the body pulled itself out of the void, and standing before it was a boy, a teenager. Dressed in a black coat and leather brown boots, his right hand seemed to be made of steel, gleaming in the sunlight while his left was made of flesh. His hair was a dirty blonde and slightly long while waving in the wind, but what really drew their attention was his right eye. It wasn't that of a human's. The oval then closed behind him.

"That's him," Laurissa said, in a surprisingly calm ton, breaking the silence and having everyone look at her. "That's Garmadon. He fits the description we got."

The party turned back to the boy with anticipation. Thousand Leagues face had concern etched into it as she tried formulating a strategy in her mind. "What now? We can't engage Garmadon without running the risk of fighting that unknown entity."

Interlude: Ainz Oal Gown

"Let us go then," Ainz announced, turning with an outstretched hand. "[Gate]," he chanted.

Before him appeared a black oval with a series of white lightning sparks passing through it. Stepping into it, Ainz's vision was consumed by the tear in space time-continuum.

'This is too much, even for me,' Ainz thought, coming out of the portal and setting foot in the middle of the 6th floor amphitheater, five individuals knelt before him. 'A plain of existence outside my own with people that decides not only the choices people make, but also the fate of everyone I know. And now one of its inhabitants is here! Chances are they're the reason why I'm here.'

"Demiurge, the potential player we spoke of is coming here. He is to be tested against Albedo in a mock battle," Ainz announced in a thunderous voice to the kneeling demon, dark shreds of energy radiating from the Supreme Being. Albedo came through the portal, bowed once and made her way to the end of the arena. "I want you, Cocytus and Mare to oversee the match in my stead as I head to the treasury. Yuri, Entoma, you're with me."

"Yes Lord."

"Lord if I may," Demiurge began raising his head. "During the match that is about to take place, what should happen if Albedo makes an attempt to kill him?"

"Leave things be," Ainz responded, the flames in his eyes blazing. "This battle will be pointless if it's not taken seriously."

"Understood, my Lord. We shall observe but not interfere in this fight."

"Very good. Yuri, Entoma, let's go."

Activating his ring of the guild, the scenery flashed blue before becoming one of brilliant gold. The trio found themselves at the foot of a mountain of gold coins in a vast room with multiple corridors dotting around the sides. The two maids looked on in wonder at the sight.

"Ah that's right, this is the first time you've been the treasury, isn't it?" Ainz asked the maids.

"Yes, it is," Yuri responded, now focusing on the ruby and gold ring strapped to her finger. "No one can enter the treasury without the ring of Ainz Oal Gown, it's the only key."

"Yes, well, it is a safety measure in case of infiltration," Ainz said, moving to stand before one of the numerous corridors blocked by darkness. "Glory to Ainz Oal Gown," calling out the words, writing of pure white pierced through the wall, spelling out a riddle in Latin. "Let's see," he mumbled, resting a bonny hand on his chin. "By this means; you will acquire the glory of the whole world, and so you will drive away all shadows and blindness. At least I believe that's correct."

The words disappeared before the black wall shrank to a circle, growing smaller and smaller till it disappeared. The corridor was left open and the trio made their way with Ainz ahead.

'This is too troublesome,' Ainz sighed, passing by relics of his guild. 'If I'm going to proceed with my plans and find other YGGDRASIL players, I need Garmadon out of the way. He didn't seem that strong in the two fights I've seen him in, so killing him should be easy. I don't have any use for him and I feel as though he's hiding something. This whole mock battle should make it seem like an accident to the higher dimension if Garmadon were to die. As I'm pressed for time, I'm gonna need to split tasks with the guardians for the accident, and me preparing for Shalltear.'

"My Lord, lady Mare says the match in the amphitheater has begun and Albedo has the upper hand," Entoma chimed, holding a sleeved arm to her ear.

"Very good. Be sure to have updates on the fight and inform me of any drastic occurrences," Ainz responded. Eventually they exited the long corridor and the trio entered a single squared room with three other passages on either side. It was bare of any furniture; say for a pair of grey sofas facing each other, on one of them sat an even greyer figure with a human-like body with an octopus for a head. Its eyes were a light blue with cloudy white pupils which starred at its visitors.

The two maids were both in shock while the look of utter confusion was painted on their faces. Well, one of them anyway, the other had the constant facial expression of happiness literally painted onto the mask she wore.

"L-Lord Tabula, is that you?" Yuri gasped.

The creature in question only tilted its head in confusion as Yuri still doubted her own eyes. Suddenly, an epiphany struck her in the moments of analyzing the situation. Straightening up her back like a board, clasping her hands in front and assuming a formal pose before the 16th Supreme Being with a deep bow.

"Lord Tabula, I am overjoyed to know of your return and that you're safe. Is there anything you need of me?" she added, eyes closed with Entoma assuming the same position

"…"

"…"

"…"

"My lord?"

Behind the two battle maids, Ainz, with all his supremacy observed the signs of respect displayed towards his fellow guild member. Unfortunately though he was filled with neither pride nor joy at this moment. 'Aaahh this is so awkward. If Yuri discovers what she has done she'll be mortified, so how can I brake this to her? Slowly?' Ainz panicked, using every ounce of dead emotion he had to remain calm. "Pandora's Actor, change your form!"

At that moment, two things happened simultaneously; the first was the confused look Yuri gave at Ainz's order. The second was by that same order; the supreme squid-head's skin went a dark orange before bubbling into a gallantness mass. In no time flat, the once Supreme Being was now a tall figure dawned in a German-style military uniform with his face hidden by the brim of a hat.

"Why it seems as though I have visitors," spoke a goofy voice, apparently, filled with pride. Walking out from the sofas, the individual clapped his feet together in a German aristocrat greeting with a respectful salute. "Greetings to my creator, Lord Momonga!"

"Urrgh, you look like you're doing well," stuttered Ainz, a little taken back by the greeting of his previous name.

"Yes, I couldn't be better my good sir; it certainly has been a while. To what do I owe this honor?" Pandora's Actor announced with a bow and a hand over his heart.

"I'm in need of some world items."

"Ah. WORLD ITEMS! CHANGING THE WORLD WITH IIIIIMMMMMENSE POWER, SHOWING THE GREATNESS OF THE MIGHTY SUPREME BEINGS!" Pandora's actor cheered, assuming several possess and revealing his face be that of an emotionless specter with three holes to show his eyes and mouth. He ended his overly dramatic performance with his back turned. "These sacred treasures have been asleep for ages beneath Nazarick, has the time finally come to wake them up?"

'This dude is so lame!' Ainz internally screamed.

That was the tipping point for Ainz's emotions as he entered a depressed state, a green light engulfed him for a moment before he returned to his dead-self. Yuri was now standing with her mouth agape and eyes fixated on the, literal, actor in front of her. The look on her face clearly yelled 'who the hell is this joker?'

"Lord….Momonga's…..creation," she slowly croaked in a voice that suggested she was more dead inside than Ainz was on the outside.

'This is so humiliating!' Ainz continued to panic, the green light from earlier going on and off as if he were blinking. 'Forget Shalltear being brainwashed, I now have to deal with an embarrassing creation gaining a will of his own and prancing about in front of people who consider me to be a god! I would literally give anything for this one moment to be over, or at least a change of topic!'

 _Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!_

Several tremors were sent throughout the room, shaking it and its occupancies but they still held their footing. All four wildly glanced around the room before the maids dashed to their lord's side, prepared to defend him to the last breath.

"What was that? Entoma, ask the guardians if they know the reason of those tremors," Ainz ordered, thanking whatever deity's he could think of for the sudden interruption.

"Yes my Lord," the insect girl responded, bringing a sleeved arm to her head. "Master Demiurge, Lord Ainz wishes to know the current situation and possible causes of the the tremors." A few moments passed with a couple nods. "L-Lord Ainz. Demiurge has reported that the shaking we experienced was caused by the mock battle."

"Huh, did Albedo go over board and use all her power?" sighed Ainz, knowing how Garmadon had taunted the guardian overseer and was liable to do it again. But something was off, true the magnitude of the tremors was something Albedo could cause, but the times it occurred were far too suspicious.

"N-No, my lord. Demiurge says that it was caused by Garmadon, and the 6th floor amphitheater has been decimated. There're currently a number of holes leading up to the surface."

"…What?!"


	8. Chapter 8

Great news, I finally have the fight against Albedo done and there are no cliffhangers, Yaaayy!

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

"Screw reality. I make my own."

In my right hand I was holding a longbow T-76 (it's a sniper's rifle) at Albedo's exposed face. What had happened was when she brought her axe down I swung my right arm to the side of the axe and diverted the strike with my left. The resulting conclusion was the axe driving into the ground beside me but I had the flesh on my left arm peeled off in the process. The strain I put on my muscles didn't help with the pain of my arm getting skinned.

Making use of that opening I materialized the rifle and aimed for Albedo's head. Honestly a Gatling gun would've been better, but that was made of several LEGO pieces in my world and this was only one. It was easier to picture.

Albedo's smile returned as the flesh on my arm healed itself. "You know that can't kill me. You've lost this match no matter what you do."

"Meh," I responded nonchalantly and pulled the trigger.

"[Iron skin]"

 _Bang!_

The bullet was rebounded off the overseer's forehead with minor damage into my gut, but in that moment I switched hands with the rifle and slammed my right onto the ground outstretched with the palm facing down. The yin-yang symbol in the palm began glowing a dark purple with the rest of my arm.

'Remember what Cocytus suggested, larger details first and then the smaller ones. Focus on the drawing, what did it look like? Red hull, three turrets on either side with three cannons each by the wheel house at the stern with rockets built in. At the bow of the ship was a gigantic sword.'

My arm began humming loudly as the light grew brighter. Soon the ground began rumbling deeply as though something was coming from below it.

"What's this?" said Albedo confused, the rest of the Guardians in the grand stand had the same expressions on their faces.

"NOW RISE, DEUCALION!"

By my command the ground gave way to a silver object that rose higher and higher while growing wider and wider. Eventually it began slicing me in the ribs until I was cleaved in half like cheese. What the actual hell?

The pillar continued to rise with more of the shuttle coming out, only this time it was armoured platting coloured black. My top half stumbled around the rising creation till I was caught between the deck and a massive cylinder connected to what seemed to be a turret with three other cylinders coming from it. 'Cannon's, I'm wedged between the deck and lower cannons of the ship?!'

Eventually the shuttle was as tall as the amphitheater, and just as wide. Reforming my lower half back I observed the destruction of the colosseum, chunks of arena and stands sliding of the Deucalion's armour with the massive horns jutting from the top falling to the ground with thundering crash's.

"Jesus, how'd things get this out of hand in a mock battle – oh god, I'm heading straight for the ceiling!"

Still wedged, I furiously attempted to dislodge myself with my strength now but gone. Too late.

The tip of the Deucalion rammed itself into the fake starry sky, burrowing into it with me still aboard. Chunks of rock and debris struck on me leaving deep gashes all over.

In no time flat the rest of the fictional ship had burrowed its way through the equally as fictional ceiling and had gone straight into the 5th floor of Nazarick. 'It's so cold up here.'

Unfortunately the ship kept on ramming through ceiling after ceiling until it had gone through the first floor of the tomb and was now rising towards the sky. I think I might've seen a small, squishy pink bug on my way up. 'If I don't stop this now it'll end horribly-.'

"Garmadon!" yelled a voice from behind. Cranking my head around I saw Albedo in her broken armour clinging to a busted turret cannon with her axe wedged into the ship for support. "You've desecrated the Great Tomb of Nazarick, prepare to die!"

She mouthed something that I didn't hear, but once she finished she disappeared in a flash of blue before appearing before me with her axe cleaving though the air at me. At that movement I managed to wiggle free and avoid her blade as it sliced the turret off its rotator, but now I was in a free fall.

 _Csharrnnng!_

The turret fell too until it disappeared in a series of blue pixels. As I fell I was too weak to pull the same ironman trick I did earlier to get myself out the situation.

'You know, this sucks. All I wanted was to have fun, grow old happy and die with satisfaction in my world. But _nnooo_ I had to get dragged into another and fight to survive. Guess the silver lining is that I'm now a fictional character of my design. Now I have to fight Albedo an - oh here she comes now,' back on the soaring ship that was now beginning to level out, Albedo had leapt off in a dive with her hair flapping in the wind and with her axe by her side as she plummeted. '… You know what, screw this. I declared I make my own reality and that's what I'll do.'

Letting my arms flap lazily in front of me I concentrated on a LEGO creation six-by-six with a height of twelve blocks. Purple lightning sparked before me and four large barrels with vast amounts of copper tied into a solenoid in each materialized. The four solenoids were connected together by two disks on each end and coloured silver. Grasping the materialized object, that was no bigger than I was, with both hands I glared back at the oncoming beauty.

"Hey Albedo, meet another science friend of mine. His name is magnetism!"

Focusing on both my hands I sent an electric current through the solenoids through one and dropped the temperature in the other. Suddenly my iron arm and leg slapped onto the electro magnet and were held firmly in place. Looking back at Albedo with my one good eye, she was still hurtling towards me, but something was different in her descent.

Her arms were flailing about as through in panic but after moments of hurtling through the air she slammed into the electromagnet with the massive thud that sounded like she was winded. The two of us now were now falling attached to the magnet.

"What the hell is this Garmadon? What have you done?" she yelled over the whistling wind.

"Clearly you don't know the laws of magnetism. By the way, ever seen Kung Fu Panda when Shifu and Tia Lung are fighting and end up falling back to the temple?"

"What?!"

"Didn't think so."

Panic flashed over Albedo's face as she struggled to break free with both of us falling to Nazarick. Closing my eyes, I awaited the moment of impact.

"[Greater teleportation]."

"Huh?" my vision was engulfed with a flash of white and when it cleared I found ourselves amongst the rubble of the amphitheater. My first thoughts were that Albedo had pulled a fast one on me. "You cheater! That was supposed to be the grand ending where we both crash land and you tire yourself out while I lie dead from the fall and your fallen strike, then see if I could resurrect myself. Don't think I can do that though (he can't)."

"You idiot, fallen strike wore off from you already, and do you think I care what you think? [Maximize magic, multiply] [singularity]."

Several black orbs appeared around us, growing to the size of basketballs. The surrounding rubble began breaking down with its pieces trailing towards the orbs. The same thing began occurring to the electro magnet and Albedos armour.

"Wha - are you crazy, you'll die if you use this spell," I cried, and then I feeling an ever growing itch on the side of my face and left arm. Looking down my heart stopped, my arm was also crumbling away and turning to ash. My healing was taking effect but it crumbled as well.

"If it kills you I'll gladly do it for the glory of Lord Ainz Oal Gown. May his rain last for eternity!" she cackled as her face began crumbling and sucked into the orbs.

'Shit, I can't do anything while I'm stuck to this magnet – ow wait,' I stopped freezing the electro magnet with my left arm and raised it to the orbs. "How about thiaaahhh!"

With my arm being so close to the singularity, it got sucked in an instant down to half my upper arm.

'Well this is a shit fest of a situation I'm in,' I yelled internally, waving the stump around. 'The only other arm that can do what I need to do is made of iron and stuck to an electro magne – what if I stop sending volts into it?'

Brining the manipulation of electrons to a halt, my right arm stopped generating electricity and I tried to move it. It didn't even budge.

'Jesus what are the other elements in this thing? Did I accidently aline the molecules and turn the electro magnet into an _actual_ magnet?!'

Panicking even more, I began kicking the magnet while my other leg was now crumbling away. Back at Albedo, she's already lost her hair, horns, ears and down to her elbows. The frightening overseer was still disintegrating before me.

'Think dumbass, think. Magnetic fields grow stronger the colder the North and South sides are, so I need heat it up now! Now, now, NOW!"

Focusing on the molecules under my hand I rapidly vibrated them while trying to lift it. Very slowly it began to loosen, but at the same time the itch on my head had spread.

'Okay, tricky part now. I need atoms with an atomic number of 92, but that's gonna be hard with atoms that only have 2….. Of course, the magnet must have titanium in it, I could use the 22 protons in each of its atoms to create the uranium!'

At this point I couldn't feel my lower half and the decay was reaching for my eye. Amongst the vibrating molecules in the magnet I managed to convert the protons and electrons from four atoms to one and transmute a single uranium atom with a left over oxygen particle. Moving to the next group I repeated the transmutation.

Eventually I had a dozen or so uranium atoms as finished products but was losing vision rapidly. 'Guess this'll have to do. If I don't act now I never will.'

Zeroing in on the left over oxygen atoms I began tearing the protons out of each nucleus and hurling them at the decaying uranium.

"…."

"…."

"…."

Nothing was happening, the nuclear reaction I was hoping for wasn't occurring. My vision was now but a speck but I could still see Albedo who was probably feeling as worse as she looked with parts of her skull showing. The last thing I saw before my world fell dark, were green sparks around my hand.

"….You're dying way too early pal. I grant your wish and this is how you repay me? I expected better," a feminine voice said depressed.

'Oh boo hoo hoooo. It's not up to you on how I do things, I live the way I want to and die the way I want to. Not that I wanna die right now. And what do you mean 'grant my wish,' I never made one to a voice in my head.'

"I'm not a voice in your head; you're on the border line between life and death here so you're in mine."

'So your head's purgatory? That's gotta suck. Any chance you can help me out here? I don't want to go to the other side just yet.'

"No I won't, you're about to die so you're going to remain here for-."

'What does the fox say? Nananing ning ning ning ning ning. Nananin ning ning-.'

"What are you doing?"

'I'm singing the 'what does the fox say?'. What the fox say? Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! What the fox sa-.'

"Please stop. That song was popular in 2014 but I have no interest in it anymore."

'No way, it's my favourite song, and since I have time to kill I'm gonna sing it to my heart's content. Your fur is red So beautiful Like an angel in disguise-.'

This went on for a while and the voice was saying nothing. I was beginning to think it had gone away.

'-hiding in the woods-.'

"Fine, shut up! Just please shut up. I'll give you another chance but you had better not come back anytime soon, or at least until you complete what I sent you there for. If you come back before then I'll spill the beans to everyone about your darkest secret in your world and sentence you to an eternity of pain and suffering."

'Okay, but what's this mission?'

"I'll increase your healing alongside the stats you set for yourself. Just don't fuckin come back."

'You still haven't answered my question.'

"You shall now return. The nuclear reaction you tried to start with the uranium is about to happen."

'What-?'

 _Wwoooooouugggghhh! Boooom!_

An explosive force blasted me off the magnet and slammed into the ground with pain singing all over. Despite that, light slowly creaked into my eye and the feeling of my legs returned to me. Opening my eye, the first thing I could see was the starry night sky and a giant tear in it.

Hoisting myself up, chunks of rubble slid off clunking to the ground. 'Shit, fffffaahhh, I forgot to ask who that person was. What evs, I might just call her Geader for now (mix of reaper and god),' I thought, surveying the area.

It was a war zone, the once tall and proud amphitheater of Nazarick was now reduced to so much broken stone. A fair way away, Aura, Cocytus and Demiurge were searching amongst the rubble. I opened my mouth to call out but a groan stopped me midway. On the other side of the crater that was before me (no doubt made by the explosion) laid a heap of torn metal and so much exposed bone.

"….Albedo," the once beautiful, but scary, Gaurdian overseer lied half dead, most of the skin on her face was along with parts of her head and all four of her limbs were down to the base. She looked like a limbless mummy from a horror movie, but cheesy.

'Crazy bitch, didn't peg her to be this crazy in the anime. I… oh fuck my sentimental side, I can't have her dying on me now,' muscle pain absolute, the crawl over to her was like trying to move after doing something athletic that you haven't done in a long time. It frigg'n hurt!

Pulling up alongside Albedo, I began feeling light headed as I stretched out to grab hold of her. A blood shot eye snapped open and glared down at me. "Don't you dare touch me you vile human (wheeze), I's rather die than have you aid me (wheeze)."

"Shut up you suicidal angle. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and saving Ainz some trouble you'll definitely cause him."

Albedo's breathing was becoming more irregular and her eye was beginning to close again. "All I wanted; was (wheeze) to be of use to Lord Ainz, so that he may love me-."

'Tell me something I don't already know.'

"-But now I (wheeze) I (wheeze) I (wheeze)…"

"Come on women, you're on the clock!"

"…..I….," she closed her eye completely and her breathing was almost to the point of stopping. Despite the whole situation, I imagined a loud and solid beep was playing (heart monitor beep).

"Okay, times up!" I yelled, slapping my hand onto Albedo's bear skin through the hole in her armour. It was surprisingly soft. "Restore."

Red lightning suddenly traced themselves from my hand to Albedo's stumps and head before exploding out of her. The stumps of her arms and legs began to bubble and boil with bones growing out and wrapping over it. Her skin, hair and horns all returned to her face and the armour grew itself back. Unfortunately that included the hole my hand was in, so it got cut off by the new metal.

'Argh fuc-what the hell?! I do something sincerer and I lose a hand over it!'

Right now my vision's beginning to blur, and I doubted Albedo had pulled another singularity spell. "Am I about to pass ou-?" my vision gave out, senses shut down and darkness enveloped me.

* * *

Darkness, that's all I can see. Total darkness and distant voices echoing throughout my drifting conscious.

"…..Found them…. They're over here."

"Dear lord, get him off her…. [Demonic healing]."

'Wait, get who off who? Who's even taking?'

"…Lord Ainz, we can explain…."

'Lord Ainz? Isn't that the name of an anime character?'

Cracking open my eyes I came face to face with an undead face in a field of broken stone. Suddenly it all came flooding back to me and I darted my head around. Before me stood Ainz Oal Gown, three maids and a military looking guy were by his sides. Behind me were Cocytus and Demiurge who were holding up a large silver cross that I myself was both nailed an shackled too. I'm no Jesus Christ ready to be crucified you know!

Ainz's eyes flashed red and felt like he was peering into my soul I had the nagging feeling that he might be upset.  
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Garmadon Edward-."

'He used my full name. This must be serious.'

"- for starters, explain why you were on top of Albedo, unconscious while she too was unconscious!"

'Shit, he doesn't think I laid her and we both passed out does he? At least I was right about this being a serious matter.'

Trying to find the words, my mouth moved with nothing coming out. "…..Well you see by the time the mock battle had ended, Albedo was in such a horrific state that I thought it be best to aid her and repair her armour. You know, like a true gentleman."

"You 'repaired' her armour? Are you saying that you repaired a legendary class set of armour, earned by Tabula after fighting countless enemies, that was somehow broken during a mock battle?"

"T-To be fair she was pulling out all the stops and I saw it fit to follow suit. Yes I broke a hole into the abdomen of the armour and I thought I'd clean up after myself. C-Cocytus, you saw me break it right? Right?" I pleaded, turning to the insect warrior for hope.

"…"

"Is this true Cocytus?"

"Yes my lord," he announced, giving a slight nod. "I didn't quite see what happened but after an explosion of fog there was without a doubt a hole in Albedo's armour."

'Thank you my friend whom I barely know.'

"But is she alright?" I asked, not seeing Albedo anywhere.

"She's resting in her room now. Explanation of armour aside, explain why the 6th floor amphitheater now lies in ruins!"

"Well, I urrgghh. You see the thing is I-."

"Answer me!" Ainz yelled, gripping my neck with a bony hand and lifting me off the ground. "How could the amphitheater, a product of the blood and sweat my friends and I shed together for over a week and cost so much, be demolished in less than an hour?!"

At this point I was beginning to see that green light flash over Ainz again from earlier. Am I the only one who can see it?

"I ca- can't bre-ath," I croaked, beginning to feel light headed and my eyes bulged out.

"[Grasp heart]!" In Ainz's other hand, a red heart beated in his palm as he slowly clenched it. At the same time my chest began to tighten inside and it was becoming harder to breath.

"Wait wait, I – I may not be able to expl- explain this to you right now (gulp) but I can do my best to repair it for you. Let me make it up to you!"

'Yeah right, how am I gonna fix something this big?'

"Yeah right, how can you repair an entire colosseum by yourself faster than my forces?"

'Can he read my mind?!'

"I-I'll make it up to you, I swear. Just give me 30 minutes and it'll be done! Please, (wheeze) ta - take my hands off this cross and put me down!"

'But PLEASE not in that order.'

"….."

"…"

"….."

The tightness in my chest let up along with the grip on my neck. I no time flat I found myself clattering to the ground by Ainz's feet, coughing and rasping for air.

"30 minutes, no more," he said, turning around and making his way with one maid and the military looking guy. The other two maids, one with an eye patch and another with a creepy fixed smile knelt down next to me. They began pulling out the nails in my arms and legs then moved to the shackles at my wrists and ankles.

'OOWWWW! Bit over the top don't you think?'

"Oh wait, could I have something to repair my eye?"

Ainz stopped midway before turning side on with a death glare. I think that's the only type of glare he can give. "There is nothing wrong with your eyes. Get to work." In a flash of blue Ainz and the other two were no longer in the area.

Moving my metal arm to my right eye, I was taken back by the fact I could see out of it. 'Okay, someone please tell me what happened.'

"Human," spoke the maid with the eye patch. "You have 29 minutes and 17 seconds to repair the colosseum. Get a move on."

"You heard her," Demiurge snarled with a frown on his face that gave him more wrinkles than I believed he had turn coats. "Chop chop."

"I don't think I like your attitude," I frowned at the formal demon.

"I don't care," he said nonchalantly, he and Cocytus began making their way. "CZ is to remain with you until the amphitheater is repaired. Entoma." Two scaly tentacle-like arms extended from under the fixed smile maid's skirt and wrapped around the silver cross. She heaved it into the air as though it were made of cardboard and moved to follow the others.

With Demiurge's back turned, I saw fit to perform the most mature action and stick my tongue at him. "Hhnnnnn."

Wounds just about done healing themselves I got up and thoroughly examined the area with my activated eye. With the crowd now gone, it was safe to say that CZ and I were the only souls in the area. I looked up and groaned at the sight of a circular object hovering in midair with blue threads weaving in and out of its outline. In the centre sat Ainz in a massive chair with Demiurge and the maid he had earlier standing at his side.

'Well I guess I can confirm that my eye is working again. Dam Ainz, watching me with his magic mirror, makes me feel uncomfortable. Bottom line, how am I gonna fix this?' I mulled, deactivating my eye and looking down at my hands. 'I could try that restoration thing again, but on a scale such as this?'

Walking over to a boulder four times the size of me, I placed my hands on it and hoped for the best. 'Restore.' Nothing was happening, not that I expected it to though. Looking down I noticed a piece of dark fabric pinned under the rock. Reaching down I gave it a tug and noted it was firmly pinned.

Squatting lower I shoved my hands beneath the boulder and gave it a heave. It budged slightly but that was about it, the boulder was firmly in place. "You know what, I'm gonna be lazy and blow it up," I mumbled to myself.

Brining up my right arm I materialized a large drill that began spinning round and round, faster and faster and rammed it into the rock as a punch, creating a hole that went up to my elbow. In my left hand I materialized a thick stick of dynamite, rested it in the hole after retracting my metal arm and lit the fuse.

"Fire in the hole!" I yelled, tossing the drill to one side and jumping behind some rocks, awaiting the explosion. CZ was apparently tacking cover with me.

Moments passed and yet there was no explosion. Popping my head over the top, I was half expecting the dynamite to blowup in my face, but it wasn't in the hole. "Oh right, ha ha, it timed out."

Frustrated, I shoved another stick in the hole again, but held onto it till the fuse reached the cylinder.

 _Boooomm!_

The explosion blasted the rock into smaller chunks along with my arm. It felt worse than when I cut it off back at the adventure's guild, big surprise. With the coat now relieved of captivity and my arm growing itself back, I picked it up but of course it had to be torn all over with bits and pieces missing.

"Restore."

Lightning sparks flashed over the seams mending the tears and growing back pieces that were missing. I was about to slip it back on when an idea struck me. Holding it in front I tore off one of the sleeves and held it in my left. In my right I held the original piece.

"Restore."

The torn coat in my right grew back its sleeve, but the sleeve in the left just remained the way it was, a torn off sleeve.

'Just as I thought, chances are my restoration power only works on the largest piece of the broken object, in this case my coat. So for the amphitheater, it won't work on rubble,' I thought as I slipped the coat back on. Taking a knee, I rested my hands on the ground. "Restore."

The red sparks faintly danced on every rock around CZ and I. Very slowly they began vibrating, but that was it, they weren't moving at all. With no results yielded I stopped what I was doing.

"It's way too big. I won't be able to repair the amphitheater with my current size….. hey CZ," I called the automaton maid. "Do you know where the centre of the arena is?"

"Yes, fellow me," she said bluntly. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought CZ was dead inside. Wouldn't have been the first one I've met today. Darting over rocks and crumbling walls, CZ ran in a random direction with me close at her heals.

Eventually CZ stopped and stood awaiting my arrival. "So it's just right here?" I asked, standing next to her.

She gave a quick nod in confirmation. "You have 22 minutes and 43 seconds remaining."

"Plea-please don't. Don't stress me out any more than I already am," I groaned. "This day isn't turning out to be a pleasant one, wonder when it started. Hey CZ, can you help me restore the amphitheater."

"No, you are to do it on your own as per the agreement with Ainz."

"I know but all I need you to do is basically run around and leave a paint streak behind-."

"I will not."

"Aaarrgghhh, fine."

'At least she showed me the centre.' I thought, marking the centre with an X. 'Okay, so if I want to repair the amphitheater I'll need to be bigger. But I don't think I can do that. Best chance is to use my blood as a catalyst since it doesn't turn to ash like my limbs do. Spread myself far and wide, demon summoning style. But I'll need heeellp…..'

I turned back to CZ with a smirk while she still had her poker face, a dam good poker face. "CZ Delta, do you know what Ainz's most embarrassing secret in his life is?"

CZ looked at me with her solid face before raising an eyebrow at me. "His most embarrassing secret? Please elaborate."

'God I hope Ainz hasn't stopped watching this.'

"As you probably know, I'm from the control dimension where everything is written and decided upon, so it would make sense that I'd know peoples darkest secrets. For instance, I know you occasionally love cute fluffy animals more than the Supreme Beings. Now, I can either tell you Ainz's secret, or you can help me with a simple task that won't be in direct violation of the agreement."

"I refuse to aid you. I am listening."

"Long ago, before you were even born, Ainz was a young person going through a metamorphosis called puberty and it took him more than 5 years to go through. During this time he had powerful urges that could only be satisfied with the contents of a large box which he kept hidden in his room."

"Please elaborate, what was in the box-," cutting herself off, CZ raised a hand to her ear and shortly gave a couple of nods. "Understood. Lord Ainz requests that I help you to the extent that it will not breach the agreement made. But only on the condition that you, by my lords words, 'shut your fucking mouth'. End of message."

'Ha ha haaa, and my finger were crossed the whole time.'

"Okay, great. Now, are you able to store large quantities of liquid in your body in addition to your own?"

"To an extent."

"Great," I began, kneeling down and running a metal finger through the dirt. "This is the plan; I'm going to saw at my own arm over and over so that I bleed, a lot. You'll then be taking in that blood and creating the following pattern on the amphitheater. Like so," tracing my finger in a circle to outline the colosseum boundary I ran a series of S's inside that rotated. In the end the diagram was a circle with a spiral leading into the centre. "The centre of course is the X over there. Be sure not to get any blood on the rubble, only on the amphitheater floor. Got it?"

"Affirmative."

"Great, let's get started," I announced, materializing a hack saw in my right and began sawing at my left. I gritted my teeth through the pain.

'Drrrgghh, this hurts more than simply cutting it off!'

Back and forth, back and forth. Blood sprayed everywhere as the teeth tore at my flesh, as it did a thick trickle of blood gushed out and splattered on the ground while the red lightning sparked around the wound. The sawing I could deal with, but what CZ was doing creeped me out. When she said she could contain other liquids I didn't think she'd take it in through her mouth! Oh god!

After a minute of sawing CZ had her fill and she began running around the amphitheater spraying my blood with something that looked like a water gun attached to her waist. Once she ran out I gave her some more, hacking at my arm all over again. This went on for a while till she came back saying the pentagram was finished.

"Objective complete. You have 2 minutes and 16 seconds remaining."

"Okay okay, thankyou fffaaarrghh," hissing through the pain I dropped the saw and gripped my arm as lightning sparks healed the gash. After healing I moved over to where I had marked the X, now covered in lines of my own blood, and placed my hands in the centre. "Restore."

'God I hope that voice in my head did what I hoped it did. I'm basing my future on a hunch here.'

"…."

"…."

"I don't-."

 _Fzzzzzzzchchczzzzzzz!_

The blood below glowed a deep crimson before re lightning, much bigger than the ones that heal me, raced throughout the blood trails. They darted from rock to rock and arched through the air racing towards the outer layer of the pentagram.

CZ stood behind me on edge and was following the path of a bolt that weaved in and out of a blood trail. Then the ground began to shack and I had a sinking feeling as it felt all too familiar.

'Please not another space ship.'

Suddenly lightning erupted from the boundary around the colosseum that branched out to the levels above and striking the edges. It looked like a giant tree made of red lightning. CZ was now jumping all over the place while holding a hand to her ear again and yelling something I couldn't make out. Around us, the lightning that hummed on the boulders grew in intensity as they slowly lifted off the ground.

Some shot to the sides of the amphitheater, fitting themselves together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Walls and seats repaired themselves as though time was being rewound, but it didn't stop there. The remaining rubble soured higher than the horns of the arena.

The ones that did began interlocking with the broken edges of the gaping holes the lightning reached for of every level. When the last of the broken rock became whole and lined itself with the hole in the sky, the lightning show seized to be. The lightning tree retracted back into the pentagram and everything was swell. What a load of bull!

"Hey, um, CZ. I don't question the way how you're marveling at my work, and how awesome it is. But can you give me a hand please," I asked the maid who was now back to her poker face expression but still held her hand to her ear as she starred down at me. "I need you to cut off mine, they're kind of fused here. Pretty please?"

During the reconstruction of the amphitheater, I had sunk into the ground up to my elbows and thighs. A possible side effect of using so much of my healing ability on a large scale. But then the loss of blood quickly caught up with me and I began blacking out.

'If this keeps up, I don't think I'll be able to fight Shalltear…'

* * *

Okay, that's the chapter. already got a head start on the next but I need time to make sure it makes sense. If I might've made Albedo seem weaker please let me know. I've got this nagging feeling that I've forgotten something about her that's very important. Look forward to posting the next chapter, bye.


	9. Chapter 9

**HEY EVERYONE, I'M BAAACCKKKK! Life's taken a few turns but I haven't posted any new chapters in all this time, so here's a new chapter. I owe you all that much, but I haven't written anything in such a long time so I had MadDan90 proof read it for me. Thanks for that by the way, I owe you one. Without further ado, enjoy :)**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 9**_

"Aaahhh, remind me again why I opened my big mouth and said I wanted to fight a vampiric Guardian again."

'Because I thought Ainz would trust me if I did something that would save him pain, durrgh. God, what a stupid reason, he would've been fine anyway. Should've thought of a better one.'

So here I am, standing in front of a vampire who I otherwise thought of as a fictional character, in a fictional world, and now I have to do something that a fictional Overlord found difficult to accomplish. Oh the humility, if there was any.

After reconstructing Nazarick, blacking out, and having a dream where Shalltear beat the snot out of a flying blue dragon warrior, I woke up in one of the guest rooms. It was fancy as hell! If I said it wasn't a glamorized room out load at any given time, I bet Ainz will pop out of nowhere and strangle me again. Then kill me.

The room was large with velvet walls, some furniture, two doors (one leading to the corridor, the other was the bathroom) and a queen-sized bed I was lying in. Looking around, I noted my coat to be on a chair nearby, and three others in the room. Two maids by the main door (one of them was CZ), and the third was by my bedside. But I didn't notice him until I heard metal clinking on metal.

One of Nazarick's researchers, with four arms, an eye for a head (which weirded me the hell out), and dressed in a white lab coat had taken it upon themselves to look into my mechanical arm and managed to wedge several metal spikes into slots. Though he had trouble prying it open, and of course when I realized what he was doing I clopped him one in the face. He resented my action afterwards and went on and on about it being for the benefit of Nazarick.

But I just ignored him. The maids however wanted to take me to the throne room, because there was something Ainz wanted to talk to me about. I thought the crazy scientists were a concept from movies in my world. Talk about cliché.

Before I could get out of bed there was a large growl that made us all freeze on the spot and I felt empty inside (literally).

"Rrrgh, it hurts." I groaned clenching my stomach.

'When was the last time I ate? Urrgh, it feels like months.'

"Lord Ainz thought this would happen," CZ said in a monotone, moving to the side of my bed.

"So he instructed us to prepare this for you."

She picked up a tray from the bedside and rested it on my lap. It had a steaming bowl of soup with three buns by the side and a glass of orange juice.

"Cooked by our chefs. One bowl of Minotaur hide, three buttered buns on the side, and a glass jundaril juice."

'Jundaril juice? You know what, I don't even care.'

After scarfing down the surprisingly tasty soup, and puking the less than savory jundaril juice, we were now in the corridor towards the throne room. Future note; never ask for jundaril juice. That stuff is so bad I felt like I was Harry Potter drinking the bone juice from Chamber of Secrets.

Back to the corridor, it was practically empty and unbelievably long. So who wouldn't have the urge to run down them like a child, arms waving in the air. I obviously asked Yuri Alpha (the other maid) about it first, and speeding down the hall way was ecstatic. Somehow the maids kept up with me with their perfect postures intact.

When we got to the throne room, Ainz was sitting on his massive throne that I kind of remembered from the anime, but seeing it in person was a different matter. It was so frigg'n huge!

At the base of the stairs stood the Guardians and Albedo in her usual spot by Ainz' side. She seemed better than the last time I saw her, so that's a bonus. The surprising thing though, was that she wasn't glaring at me, but rather just looking onto me, like I was someone she didn't consider a threat. Just how much of her brain was eaten by that singularity?

When it came to Ainz talking to me he just went guffin on about how important it was that I kill Shalltear as well as what to look out for. I was just internally screaming...

'Dude, I'm from the control dimension and I've seen the anime. Do you really think I haven't seen Shalltear try and beat the deceased life back into you the rip it out?!'

I was never one for listening to lectures. I found them boring A.F.! This one was no different and zoned out a couple of times, but got caught off guard a few times when I was expected to answer though.

In one part I think he said something about me going to E-Rantel to wait for him or to not bother going back. I probably should've paid more attention to that one. Eventually Ainz finished his speech, opened a gate, and I was like...

'Finally! I get to leave!'

Wait! I'm getting off track now. Bottom line is I'm risking my life 'cuz I'm hoping Ainz will help me get home if I help him. But thinking about it, I doubt he could if he doesn't even know how he got here.

"Ya know, this is probably a bit excessive. Two Guardians in one day?~ Ha!"

Walking up to the vampire, I noticed that she didn't make any signs that she knew I was here.

'Okay, planning time; set a trap around Shalltear then trip it for over damage. After that, go crazy!'

Activating my eye, an orange bubble encasing her appeared that stretched to the edge of the charred grass.

'Last minute protection field? Probably.' I thought, materializing a red box in my right hand then setting it by the edge of the bubble.

Still keeping contact with it, I took my left hand, and bit deep into the thumb, tearing the flesh and wiping the dripping blood over the parcel.

"Ow-ow-ow-owwww! How does Naruto do this without at least wincing? This frigg'n hurts!" I gritted, the torn flesh mending itself in a flurry of red sparks.

Very carefully, I took my hand off the box, and it maintained its form.

'Okay, still works.' I thought, materializing another box, biting my thumb, smearing it and stacking the box next to the first.

Back in my fight against Albedo, and got sliced by the Deucalion, the ship itself didn't dematerialize even while I fell. I wonder if the people of this world have seen it yet? Meh. Whatever. Finish laying multiple red boxes by the outline of the charred grass with smeared blood on each, I formed a lengthy piece of wire and buried the end into one.

'Okay, wire's set and packages laid. Time to run.'

Making a B-line to the edge of the clearing and deactivating my eye, I skidded onto my stomach and buried my right arm, still holding the end of the wire in my left.

"M'Kay. Sure hope this is enough. Now….. FIRE IN THE WHOLE!"

Sending a volt down the wire and ducking low, there was a moment of silence.

 _KAABOOOOOMMM!_

A fiery ball of red and white sent a shockwave though the field, digging up chunks earth and uprooting nearby trees. The immediate explosive force threatened to tear me out and send me flying, but my arm kept me anchored, but it was on the edge of tearing off. Eventually the force died down and there was a massive plume of smoke in a churned-up area of smouldering earth and grass.

Looking up from my position and activating my eye I scanned through the smoke for signs of Shalltear. 'God, I hope that was enough dynamite to at least do something that'll help… me… in… the… long run...'

The hope in my heart died almost instantly when I saw the same lance Shalltear held earlier. Only this time it was held by a crimson gauntlet.

"…Well… shit..."

Through the looming smoke stood Shalltear dawned in her battle armour with angel wings. Despite my concern, if not fear, I also felt happy that I hadn't just gone and blown someone up with lumps of flesh raining from the sky... But now I have to deal with a vampire with abilities I know are scary.

"Hahahaha! How interesting!~" She giggled, shooting her head up and staring at me with blood shot eyes and a toothy grin.

"I've never experienced that much damage without the use magic before.~"

'Yikes!'

Still on the ground I was at a loss for words. There was an authentic vampire loli right in front of me who survived a blast from 85kg of dynamite with only a few scratches. She wasn't even a loli anymore!

"Yeah, well... nothing a little dynamite can't provide. Though I've never seen anyone in life survive an explosion like you did, Shalltear Bloodfallen of Nazarick."

Shalltear's eyes widened in astonishment at the mention of her name before distorting her face into a scowl.

"I don't know how you know my name, or what relationship I have with you, but since you've attacked me I must respond in kind and tear you limb from limb."

"Yeah, I know. That's why Ainz and the Guardians are behind you for a surprise attack. Oops, spilled the beans.~"

Shalltear spun around to see her lord and the man she loves.

"Lord Ainz-!"

 _BANG! BOOM!_

In the distracting moment with her back turned I had materialized a Lego based, three barrelled revolving cannon with a pair of wooden legs on either side. An empty cartridge the size of a bed pillow laid smoking next to it and behind I was turning a crank which rotated to the next barrel. When the smoke cleared, Shalltear was slightly hunched over with her back damaged considerably and a large dent.

"What-!"

 _BANG! BOOM!_

An explosion followed by a cloud of dust enveloped Shalltear as another round was fired with a smouldering cartridge ejecting from the barrel.

'Last round, better make it count... hell!'

Midway through revolving something lunged at me from the side. With active eye I weaved out the way and Shalltear collided with the triple cannon, smashing it into pieces.

Landing on the ground I looked up to see Shalltear starring down at the shattered weapon dematerializing into blue pixels.

"That weapon you used, what was it?~ It used the same explosion principle as explosive magic, and the bombs you used. But there was no magic being activated."

"Oh? It's nothing special." I mused, getting up and materializing a gatling gun in both hands. "It's just a creation."

I swung the firearm round and let loose a barrage on Shalltear.

 _BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!_

 _Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!_

Using her lance in one hand Shalltear deflected all the rounds with ease until stomping her foot on the ground.

"[Wall of Stone]!"

A stone wall erupted in front of Shalltear, and then there was a deep boom from behind and the wall lurched towards me.

'Shiiittt!' Screaming in my head.

I leaped to the side and the wall rammed right by with a nasty crunch from behind followed by a burning sensation as I slumped to the ground.

"Aaarrrgh, what the fuck?!"

Half-way down my left shin my boot was torn off and exposed with blood leaking from torn fissures in the sides while the foot was twisted backwards.

"Ffffuuuaarrrccck, this hurts!" I wailed with crimson lightning engulfing the wounds, stitching them together and my foot twisting several times around back into place. "That doesn't look healthy."

"[Lightning Strike]!"

Right above me, Shalltear was bearing down on me with a lightning bolt in her hand.

"Whoa!"

I darted back, leaving the gatling gun behind and Shalltear struck into it, smashing it to pieces with sparks snacking throughout. Materializing and raising a pair of desert eagles, I let loose.

 _Bang ding! Bang ding! Bang ding! Bang ding! Bang ding!_

All shots were repelled by Shalltear's raised lance and after the final round was repelled she pounced with her left hand out stretched for a jab. Playing some fancy foot work, I moved to the side, but Shalltear continued to come at me like a vampiric heat seeker missile and jammed through my right shoulder and popped out the other end.

"Gaahh!"

Gasping in pain I dropped the gun I held, while Shalltear was giving a toothy grin. She lifted me high above the ground.

"Painful, isn't it?~" She hissed.

Twisting it her hand causing blood to spurt out, some of it trickled down Shalltears' arm as her mouth gaped open with her fangs extended and saliva dripping from the tips.

"The scent of a human's blood.~ (sniff). Harrrrgh, I'll never grow tired of how tantalizing it is~."

"You biiiaaahh!" While screaming I gripped onto Shalltear's wrist to try and stop her from twisting, but her strength was insane.

'Come on. Re-think, double time!'

In a swift movement I pulled my body away, spun around and hurled Shalltear over my shoulder.

Well, that last part played out in my head if she wasn't so ridiculously heavy. Now I'm stuck in front of a vampire who's now gripping my wrist and still has her teeth bared to chomp down on me. Rule number one of a fight to the death with a crazed vampire; never show them your rear. Still locked in position I flipped the left gun under my right arm pit at Shalltear.

 _Bang! Bang! Click, click, click._

"Looks like you're out.~" Shalltear giggled, gripping me tighter then yanking me over her head and slamming into the ground.

"Blaah!"

Temporarily winded, Shalltear drove her lance at my chest. Before it could connect I rammed the guns' barrel into the lances head, directing its trajectory and driving it next to my ear.

'What did Ainz do against Shalltear in the anime again?...Thunder!'

Still in her grip I twisted my hand so it made contact with Shalltear's gauntlet. Focusing on the atoms and splitting them, the volts created pumped into Shalltear's body.

"What are you doing?" She asked in a bland tone, looking down at me with a puzzled look. "This is a sorry excuse for lightning magic."

'What...! But the…why isn't this working?' I yelled in my head, gripping her harder.

'Ha haaaaa…' "…Shit….."

Shalltear swiftly yanked me off the ground and kicked me along the field. Tumbling along I dug my feet in and skidded backwards to a halt, but not before a stinging pain shot through my right arm. Attempting to grip it, I only found nothing but a pocket of air. Back at Shalltear she held my arm which immediately darkened like charcoal and crumbled in her grasp.

'She kick-tore my arm off.'

"What is that metal enchanted with?~" Shalltear called, lightning sparks hummed out of my arm, bubbling over and growing back.

"Nothing I've seen so far in this land nor in Nazarick has crumbled away then returned to where it was from. Your body has been doing the same thing throughout this fight."

"Well if I had to say anything, I'd say it's because I'm awesome.~" I joked, materializing a pair of silver cylinders in each hand no wider than toilet roll but just as long as a pair. "But in the fairness of disclosure it's a question I occasionally ponder over as well."

Clicking a button on each of the rods a beam of light erupted from both. One red, and the other blue.

"Your weapons are peculiar, boy.~" She stated, flexing her fingers and swinging her lance around. "But aside from your magic that's all you've got going for you!"

The ground under her feet shattered as she launched right at me with a harsh whistle in the air. With my eye Shalltear came at me in slow motion. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to picture a creature made of LEGO. A monster with a bone structure and warlock as it's rider.

"[Purifying Lance]"

I jolt of agony shot through my chest as I was lifted up like a rag doll and beaten on the ground several times before flung to the side.

'Arrrrgghhh-fuck. That hurt, buhuhut this is gonna be good.~'

I giggled, snapping my eyes open to see the ground rushing below me, skidding my arm through the dirt, tripping over and flipping to a halt on both feet.

'Heh! Nailed it.'

Lightning surged over my chest as the hole stitched itself back together and the pain slowly faded.

"If you think weapons and healing magic are all you think I have going for me, then you are in for a rude awakening bitch!"

Dashing at Shalltear with my eye active, she too launched at me again with her lance raised.

I brought one light-saber down, and she attempted to block it with her lance, but it sliced as easily as butter leaving a molten circle on each half. Seeing the opening created I swung the other in a wider arc at her waist, slicing her in two at the abdomen. With an expression of shock chiselled onto her face blood gushing out both her waists. Suddenly everything seemed to stop, both my movements and everything about Shalltear froze on the spot.

As though someone were playing this backwards, Shalltears blood flowed back into her halves while they both re-joined. I watched in frozen shock as the vampire stood once again before me with a once again ear-to-ear grin. The half of the lance on the ground shot straight back to where I sliced it from and the molten line fading fast.

'... Well... this is sucks. I totally forgot about that skill of hers...' I thought, turning off the sabers and clapping my hands together.

"Say hello to an old friend of mine!~"

Focusing on the finer details of the monster, several white spikes erupted from my sides and collided behind Shalltear and grew in size as a sphere while spikes continued expelling from me. Lightning buzzed around the amassing object as a spine formed out a dozen or so meters long followed by a pair of limbs extending from each end slamming on the ground. It assumed the position of something on all fours.

A rib-cage extended out from the spine like fingers closing together and a pair of bone arms out the shoulder blades. Fingers formed out of arms that grew longer, turning into wings. A tail whipped from one end of the spine with a massive skull growing from the other with a pair of massive curved in horns jutting from the sides. A long gaping jaw bearing fearsome teeth and red lights lit in the sockets that gazed down at Shalltear.

"Welcome to existence old friend." I said, the skeletal dragon towered several feet above us, but began pixelating with the lack of contact.

"Ar yes, it needs blood."

"So, you're a summoner now?~ Not a very good one at that. Your creation is already losing it's form.~"

"Well hey, it's not going to for much longer," I said, chomping down on my thumb.

"[Magic Destruction]!"

The air around us pulsed and my eye revealed a pale barrier coming from Shalltear and slamming into the skeletal dragon which burst into white powder and disappeared in a swirl of blue pixels.

"…Huh?!..."

"Are you really that stupid? That's a surprise. Using [Mana Essence], I saw everything you've created has been comprised completely of mana. So all I had to do was destroy it with a simple spell." Shalltear cackled, turning to face me.

'So my constructs are made of magic? No, only the fundamental basis. If it were completely made of magic alone I would have never manipulated the material of the electromagnet in Nazarick.'

"Since you lack the capacity to be a proper summoner allow me to give you the crash course in being a master at it." The armoured vampire announced while raising an arm.

"[Summon household]."

The shadow at her feet began to sway and move as though it were made of water. Suddenly numerous creatures black as night leaped from the shadows, some shaped like bats, rats or wolves. Each of them had a blood lust in their crimson eyes while numbering in forties or something.

"Kill him my pets. Tear him limb from limb!"

At her command the shadow familiars charged me with teeth and claws bared.

"I don't feel like dying today you bitch!"

Thrusting my arm down the throat of an oncoming wolf, it howled in pain before exploding into ash. In its place hovered a red beam from the lightsaber hilt I held.

"Instead I feel like having some fun!"

Swinging the other saber hilt, a blue beam shot out and struck a few flying bats which too exploded into ashes. I continued hacking furiously at the familiars around me, slashing up, slashing down, and swiping in broad arcs. While doing do, I couldn't help myself but grin as I watched familiars explode one after another with saber trails left in their path. Honestly though if my eye wasn't active I would've been caught be most of the critters. But it doesn't mean none got me.

"Ow-ow-ow-oooowww! Get off rodents!" I yelled.

The bat and rodent familiars clawed me all over with blood splattering everywhere. Surrounded by shadow summons exploding and attacking, my eye began aching and based on what happened in Nazarick I chose to shut it off and not go half blind. But it was at that moment that Shalltear's lance burst through the horde and struck me in the gut.

'Ouch..'

"Bluurrgh!"

The sudden impalement threatened to lift me off my feet. Shalltear's lance head then folded back and a surge of green lighting coursed from the wound into her shortly followed by thick red lighting.

"Hmmmmm, this feeling. The feeling of your life force flowing into me." She moaned in pleasure as I fell to my knees.

"It's sensational.~"

"Uuurrghh-uurrgghh. Hurrr-ARRRGHHH!"

In that moment while my legs were trembling, I tore the lance head out while lightning was still surging from me and swung a lightsaber at her leg and hacked it off. Shalltear wobbled in surprise, but before she fell red lightning danced around her stump which became a bubbling heap and the leg grew back followed by armour. While I scrambled back to a safe distance, her severed limb crumbled to ash.

"…..The hell?... how the bloody hell did you do that?"

I was aware of her how her special recovery magic worked first hand, but this healing was my own. 'The lightning…. Her lance siphoned some of my healing.'

While the hole in my chest sealed itself, Shalltear grinned down at me with blood shot eyes.

"Thanks for the battle, and pleasure.~" She said, raising her left hand facing me.

"[Vermilion Nova]!"

 _FWOOOM!_

At her words a pillar of fire exploded around me with the feeling of my flesh searing off my bones.

"Aaarrrgh. Aaarrgh!"

Dropping the sabers and falling to the ground, I tried focusing on slowing the flame molecules. Eventually the flames and pain died while my reactive healing took effect on my skin, but the lightning was weaker this time.

"What's it going to take to kill a lowly life-form like you?!"

"Huu, huu. More. A lot more you fictional Vampire. Now let's try this again!"

Stretching out my arms I recreated the dragon behind Shalltear. But this time I shoved past her, bit my left thumb and smeared the blood onto its leg.

"You never learn. [Magic destruction]!"

Shalltear's spell activated and the dragon exploded once again, but this time the white powder reassembled themselves like a giant Lego creation piecing itself back together. In no time flat the dragon once again towered over us bearing its teeth with hatred in its eyes.

"Well, this is new. [Einherjar]."

"Oh, shit! Not that!"

'And I thought it was bad enough there was one.'

A white fog seeped from Shalltear which clumped together and began forming another Shalltear of pure white hovering just above the ground. Slowly she floated down and opened her eyes lazily.

'Whelp! At least she doesn't seem to have that blood lust in her eyes.'

Suddenly, [Einherjar] leaped up to the dragon and started pounding it with her lance. The dragon retaliated with bursts of purple fire and attempts of snapping at her.

'Since when did I make him breath fire?'

While that went on, the real Shalltear sped at me with her lance aimed for my chest. Without my eye I couldn't perceive the strike until it rammed right into me, thumping me to the ground. I must've hit my head badly because my vision started spinning.

"Ah~ah. I… remember now. This character… I made… has one more ability I haven't used." I murmured.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you down there.~" Shalltear mocked, gripping my face and lifting me high with my limbs dangling, her lance rested above my heart.

"I would love to hear what the boy who brazenly challenged me pleaded before having his heart devoured and put into a state of living death."

'Wait. Does she mean a zombie? Like hell I want to be a brain chomping corpse.'

Through a crack between her fingers I saw the skeletal dragon laid sprawled 'n' battered on the ground and slowly pixelating with already missing sections. [Einherjar] stood above its skull and drove her lance into it, causing the dragon to give an ear-piercing screech of agony before bursting and disappearing into pixels once again.

"I said… wouldn't it be fun to seize the light of hope before the curtains fall.~"

"Wha…?!"

Blang!

A sudden explosion erupted from Shalltear's arm, forcing her to drop me. She stood her ground and glanced around to see where the attack had originated from.

"Well something like that, but more me owning your ass with science from my world." I said, sitting up and spotting a hooded figure dawned in a cloak with an outstretched arm.

"Thank you!"

Activating my eye followed by a slight ache, I quickly analysed her.

'…Rippling red cloak, like the one from E-Rantel…..a girl with blue hair? She is the one who was following me then. She's hot- oh god not that much of an x-ray! God, I feel like more of a pervert right now.'

Deactivating it and scampering away from Shalltear who seemed to have found my saviour, I watched as [Einherjar] sped towards her.

'Damn it! There's no way she can stand against a guardian clone.'

"Oy, your fights with me you bitch!" I screamed getting back up. "Now turn your rotting pale ass around so I can beat it back into a coffin, ya' blonde tramp!"

That seemed to make Shalltear snap as she turned to me with a psychotic grin on her face and a twitching eye. [Einherjar] had stopped her advance and had the same look on her face.

'Wow, she really does show emotion.'

"No one EVER calls me a tramp." [Einherjar] spat in a voice that sounded like she was breathing in while she spoke.

"Anyone who calls me that will receive a fate worse than death. Even that gorilla whore!"

The real Shalltear half laughed angrily with her eyes lighting up in crimson. A red aura of blood lust enveloping her.

'Riiiighht. Blonde tramp was one of Albedo's insults from episode two. Heh, certainly pushed that button.'

Swinging my right arm in front as though I were holding something and taking a stance with one foot before the other, I reactivated my eye. With the eye suddenly coming back on it began leaking blood from the base once again. At that time both vampires came right me with raised lances and lightning in their other hands.

"I… am… creations foundation. Bone my structure and blood my life, I have made over a thousand constructs in life with hands that have held my fate, but have yet held nothing..."

While reciting the incantation my eye gave a slight hum and the plates around my right palms insignia folded out as the insignia itself grew in radius. At the same time the forearm began piecing itself inwards bit by bit in cubes, like what Bumblebee did to the cube in the Transformers movie.

A purple and white lightning bolt zapping away was exposed where the bone should be. While so the vampires started pounding me around the area and shocking me, but with two of them now not even my eye helped save me from the strikes.

"Gurrgh, unaware of defeat yet oblivious to victory, I make what I will and that is my joy. The only boundaries I set are within my imagination!"

Suddenly a flash of light from the insignia engulfed my vision in white with Shalltear and [Einherjar] along for the ride.

 **Interlude: Slane Theocracy**

"Skeletal dragon!? This kid's with bloody Zuranon!" Harold cried, thumping to the base of a tree and shacking all over at the sudden appearance of the summoned dragon.

Thousand Leagues dropped to her knees and attempted to comfort him.

"Calm down, Harold and think. Zuranon aren't the only ones who can summon skeletal dragons and you know it. Not only that, but they've never been known to attack with a single member before."

Harold's eyes began refocusing as he attempted to comprehend what had just been said, but he was still shacking slightly.

"O-okay, I'll buy it for now, but I'm keeping my suspicions about him. I won't take chances with that guy."

"Urrgh, pardon me for interrupting you little lovers quarrel," Halitosis intervened, kneeling down beside the two, while Laurissa remained behind him peeking over the shrubbery.

"But how do you think we're going to catch Garmadon. Chances are he won't be able to last much longer and the vampire looks like she's holding back in a way. If we don't do something he'll lose and probably die."

"I've been thinking of that and I think I may have something," Harold responded, cross legging and drawing a circle in the dirt with a smaller circle followed by a cross in the centre.

"The circle's Garmadon and the 'X' represents the vampire. As things stand, Garmadon will die, if not become a ghoul first. When the vampire thinks she's won and about to deliver the killing blow, Thousand Leagues will give the first strike and diversion from here. Halitosis will be stationed here opposite from Thousand Leagues and when she strikes he'll goes straight for Garmadon. Laurissa and I will act as further distractions from here and here. Halitosis will then carry Garmadon to Thousand Leagues who'll provide cover fire if needed. Laurissa and I will make our escape after."

"Hang on, that's way too much of a risk," Thousand leagues protested.

"Without clear observation of the area we have no idea if there's any traps."

"Sometimes people must take risks for victory."

The team looked at the scribble in the dirt before Halitosis broke the silence.

"Why do I have to carry the boy? I'll make a great diversion attacking the vampire."

"Because you're stronger than any of us and you'll just continue fighting the vamp if you get the chance. Anything else intelligent to ask?"

Halitosis slunk away in defeat with Laurissa peeking over his shoulder. With no other responses the team moved out to their positions with Thousand Leagues remaining where she was and peeking over the edge of the shrubbery.

Back at the fight, the skeletal dragon was dematerializing, and an additional pale figure of the vampire stood just above it. Back at the real one, she held Garmadon by his face with her lance on his chest.

"No!" Thousand Leagues panicked standing up and taking aim.

"This is happening way too soon, [Brilliant Detonation]!"

 _Blang!_

In a quick flash the vampires arm exploded, causing her to drop Garmadon who wildly looked around. Glancing at the clearing edges, Thousand Leagues didn't see any of her team members.

'Guess it was too soon.' She groaned, gazing back at the trio, only to see the pale vampire speeding towards her.

"Yikes! [Bug Shot]!"

A brown softball sized orb fired from Thousand Leagues hand which collided with the vampire's head with a nasty fwack. But she didn't even flinch and continued her charge.

"-Blonde tramp!"

The pale vampire froze mid charge at the sudden yell and turned on her toes to face the other way as if she were on a rotating disk. Peeking past her, Thousand Leagues could see that both Vampires were facing Garmadon as he began talking under his breath.

'What is he doing?' She thought before knocked to her rear at the sudden force of the vampire in front of her rocketing towards Garmadon.

Thousand Leagues could do nothing as she watched an onslaught of stabs and lightning bolts from the vampires and less that successful weaving by Garmadon.

At the edge of the clearing, Thousand Leagues saw Harold in the bushes frantically waving and giving okay signs with his fingers.

'Great, they're in position. We now just need another opening like before and-!'

Suddenly a white dome engulfed the clearing for a few moments before shrinking in size. In no time flat the dome had condensed to the size of a basketball, a tennis ball, a ping pong ball and then a marble before shrinking into nothing. The vampire pair and Garmadon who were enveloped by the light weren't anywhere to be seen.

"…..eeeerrr, what?!"

For a few moments, Thousand Leagues stood stunned until the other three came out of their hiding places around the edges of the clearing. All were equally as confused.

"So, does someone wanna tell me what just happened?!" Halitosis yelled with his axe at the ready in both hands and prepared for a surprise attack.

"Well, that's an easy one." Harold mused, sheathing his sword.

"Garmadon was fighting a pair of vampires as he chanted something with a literal open arm and BOOM! They all disappeared in a dome."

"I know that Harold. Tell me something I don't already know!" He growled.

"I have suspicions you were the one who ate the last of my biscuits."

"For the last time those were muffin crumbs!"

As the pair bickered, Thousand Leagues made her way to Laurissa who was looking around a burnt area on the ground. While she did, her cloak rippled like water and became transparent to reveal a pair of blue overly long ponytails as she deactivated her illusion spell. Perched on her head was a giant witch hat with a brim that made it look like a floppy sombrero while the rest of her attire looked like she was in pajamas.

"Boys will be boys I guess," she sighed to Laurissa who only glanced up in acknowledgement.

While searching, Thousand Leagues mind went for a bit of a wonder.

'The Catastrophe Dragon Lord's revival. The other Black Scripture members departed from the Theocracy to prevent it just after we did. I pray to the gods they succeeded without running into anything dangerous first. It would totally suck if they ran into a single enemy that they managed to defeat, but not before having a number of the seats cut down like a bunch of retards….'

While she stood deep in her thoughts, Laurissa was dusting off a pair of silver rods she found amongst the charred grass. They were intriguing to say the least; the craftsman ship was so refined with an even number of rectangular black studs at one end and a single red circle near the other. It could've been mistaken as something from a noble's house. But that didn't change the fact she had no idea what it was.

"Hey Laurissa, looks like you found something over here."

Halitosis remarked from behind. The argument between the two had ended, leaving Harold a little ways off inspecting a torn and bloodied brown boot with a metal tip by a crumbled rock pile. Laurissa handed Halitosis one of the rods which he turned over in his hand.

"Gross, it's smeared in blood. Oh, I know what this is, it's a weapon polisher!"

Thousand Leagues had broken out of her train of thought but was face palming herself at the ridiculous epiphany.

"Of all things…."

Halitosis started rubbing his axe with an end of the rod and joking around.

"Check it out, it's starting to shine, hehe." His thumb pressed down on the circular stud at the end.

Click….. _Buvcccchhhhhh!_

Suddenly a red beam erupted from the silver rod and melted through the axe's head.

"WHAT?!" In sudden shock.

Halitosis dropped the rod with the beam still extended. Thumping to the ground, the grass sizzled and burned when it came into contact before retracting back in.

"My aaaxxxe!"

Halitosis held what used to be a beautifully made axe of steel with a solid head but was now a stick with the head a lump of metal with a molten squiggle line in it. The big guy himself was almost in tears, with his eyes welling up so much his lower eyelids bulged out.

"This axe and I have been through so much togetherrherherr..." He wailed, falling to his knees and tears literally exploding out like a sprinkler.

"It's okay Halitosis," Thousand Leagues tried to reassure the sobbing baby.

"If we get the pieces back to the Theocracy I'm sure the blacksmiths can repair it in no time."

"A-and I'll be able to fight again…sniff, sniff….?"

"Without a doubt." she replied with a gentle smile.

"You need to man up sometimes, Halitosis." Harold said, coming over placing the torn boot by his feet and picking up the silver hilt from the ground and the other from Laurissa.

"If you broke down in the middle of a fight just because your weapon got busted you'd die in an instant, and that is why you never moved up the ranks in the Holocaust Scripture."

"….sniff….you son of a..."

"You know it's true," Harold continued.

"Back to more important matters, our main concern should be finding where Garmadon and the two vampires disappeared to. I think he called her Shalltear or something." Clicking both buttons, the two saber hilts projected beams of red and blue.

"I mean, it's not like he's going to come to us."

Saying that, Harold clicked the buttons again, retracting the beams and slipping them into his pockets. Suddenly a fissure split itself in the air in front of them of pure white, pulsing white dust and creating a sharp whistle. It grew until it was roughly 2 meters in height, a mixture of chugging and a yell was echoing from it. The team leaped together taking a battle formation, with Halitosis at the front with his smoldering stick, Harold and Laurissa at the sides with swords in hand and Thousand Leagues at the rear.

The sounds grew louder as the tear in space grew wider until something of black metal with a large and long cylinder at the front exploded out at high speed, tooting away. There were puffs of steam coming from between large wheels at the front followed by a screaming figure leaping from the side.

Tumbling to the ground, an explosion burst out of the fissure after him before closing itself off. The vehicle that had come first kept going until evaporating into blue cubes before ramming into the outskirts of the clearing. The boy sat up with a bewildered look on his face and stared back where the fissure had been.

"And that's what happens when your caught up in a super nova! God I feel good right now!"

Getting up, the boy turned to face the armed group and froze when their eyes met. Dressed in a charred t-shirt, grey shorts, he had dirty blonde hair, with a peculiar right eye dripping blood. A large bloody gash ran down one side of his back, had a limp in his step and held a large ruby shard in his left hand while his right hung limb.

"Well, urr. Lovely evening this is, isn't it?" He stuttered, hiding the shard behind giving a slight smile and panic in his eyes.

"I'm currently a little lost in these parts, so I was wondering if you could help me out and direct me to E-Rantel I'd be very grateful-."

"You're Garmadon, aren't you?" Harold interrupted, pointing his swords at the boy.

"Well, y-yes. Yes I am. And for being so rude for interrupting me, may you introduce yourselves please." Garmadon boasted, keeping his left arm behind him with a weak grin.

"I agree he's rude for interrupting you, as such I'll do the introductions." Thousand Leagues spoke up, coming from behind the group to stand in front.

"We're from the Slane Theocracy. The six cardinals have heard of your existence and deemed you fit to join our holy cause. As envoys we have been charged to recruit you for the benefit of mankind-."

"Not interested toots."

"And you claimed Harold to be rude when he interrupted you. Listen Garmadon, I didn't expect for you to agree right away but yes or no you're still coming with us no questions asked. Humanity needs to work together, you're no exception to this. If we don't then innocent lives will be lost by the tyranny of monsters and inhumans. For the good of humanity, the Slane Theocracy needs to act as a strong point, a symbol to show that we're the superior species chosen by the Six Gods six centuries ago." she announced, gesturing her arms as she did before outstretching a hand with a smile of faith.

"We need you to join us and be a part of something much greater than yourself. The strong point, the symbol for humanity's supremacy and those who've lost faith. Please join us!"

"Uh… Nope…"

Thousand Leagues stood for a few moments in her solid pose until her eyes filled with confusion, her head tilting to the side and her arm went slack for a bit.

"Ehh….I'm sorry, could you please say that again?"

"I. Said. No. How about I say it in German nein. Or how about Japanese ie (pronounced ea)." Garmadon grinned with his eyes closed.

"German and Japanese? But why? As a fellow human you have a responsibility to help protect the innocent by being a member of the Slane Theocracy." She cried.

"You aren't affiliated with any kingdom, right? So why not? Of course, we will offer you compensation with money, wealth and women even for your labors if that's what you're interested in."

"You ask why?" He replied, glaring at her with a hint of malice.

"Let's see…. It's because the Theocracy is a racist cult that don't know two things of the words 'salvation' or 'innocent'. You claim to cry out for humanity's sake, but at the same time you massacre villages upon villages of fellow humans to take down another Kingdom's military opposite military-."

"Shut up." Thousand Leagues hissed under her breath with hands clenched at her sides.

"-I mean, that's an unbelievable cheap way to get the job done and it goes against what you claim to stand for. Just a week or so ago, the sunlight scripture committed genocide of countless villages, leveling them to the ground just to kill Gazef Stronoff. Given he may have been a strong knight and the last village was saved by the greatest sorcerer in the known world, and one of the most badass guys I know if he wants, but there are people in Carne village that will never see loved ones again. Thanks to your bullshit excuse of a kingdom humanity has experienced despair more than hope-."

"SHUT UP! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut uuuuppp!" She screamed, blood red liquid flooded out from the pouch on her side before shaping into a crimson spear aimed at Garmadon.

"You know nothing, nothing of what you speak of, [Crimson Spear]-."

"[Stride of Wind]!" Suddenly Harold appeared behind Garmadon and slammed the hilt of a sword on his nape. A look of surprise flashed over his face before slumping to the ground out cold.

"Night you heretic."

"What the hell did you do that for?"

"You ask a question you know the answer to. You were about to start a fight that could easily be avoidable." He responded, sheathing his swords and gripping the boys left wrist then removing the shard.

"And this red jewel was obviously something he didn't want us having. I want to know why."

Thousand Leagues started breathing steadily, with the red liquid forming into an orb which hovered just below her as she was levitated above it.

"F-fine, fine. Mission accomplished I guess."

"This was no fun at all," Halitosis groaned, picking up the unconscious Garmadon with one hand and hoisting him over his shoulder like oversized luggage.

"All we did was watch, I didn't even land a single blow."

"You can complain later. Laurissa, watch our back, and Harold-"

"Secure the front?" the silver haired warrior finished. "You're too predictable when it comes to formation strategies you know. Here, take these as well."

Coming up to Thousand Leagues, he handed her the shard, torn boot, and pair of saber hilts. "Ow!" upon contact with the shard a sudden jolt went up her arm, causing her to drop it.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay," she reassured, picking the items up again. "Just got some butter fingers."

"…..Fine, I'll buy that for now." Harold responded, taking point.

'That was life essence responding to the shard without a doubt.' The Thousand Leagues thought, slipping the items into her bag.

Life essence is a 3rd tier detection spell which gauges the amount of life something has. She hasn't properly mastered it, so she can only gauge another's life force with direct contact.

'That reaction wasn't the reading of a single life, it felt like thousands, no millions of lives in that shard.'

As the group made their leave from the field, they remained oblivious to an invisible observation disk hovering just above their heads.

 **Forest of Tob**

"What the hell is that thing?!"

Deep in the forest three people ran in an attempt to escape. One blonde haired man armed with a spear and the other two girls with swords, one with black hair and the other chestnut hair all fearing the pressing darkness behind them.

"Don't think about it! We're all that's left. Now ruuarrgggh!"

A pair of silver furred wolves leapt out of the bushes, one sinking its teeth into his neck with blood bursting out like a balloon while the other went for his torso. The man dropped his spear and fell to his knees as a large snake tail coiled around him from the bushes and dragged him in.

"No!"

"Leave him! He's dead already!" She panicked, grabbing the others wrist and speeding through the forest. The edge could now be vaguely seen.

"We're almost there!"

Suddenly half a dozen wolves, rats and various other woodland creatures jumped out ahead and blocked their path.

"Out of the way, [Stride of wind]!"

The black haired runner sped ahead and appeared behind the animals and in the blink of an eye were chunks of meat on the ground.

"You got 'em." The other said, giving a quick smile of relief while she kept running for the edge.

"Come o-gghhhhrr," several roots shot from the ground, impaling her through her arms, chest, legs, the back of the head and out her mouth.

As blood spurted out and trickled down the spears of wood, they swayed while dragging her to the ground that crumbled and swallowed her.

"S-shelly?" The girl chestnut haired girl muttered, slowing her pace when a bloodied sword was thrown out followed by a deep burp. "N-no," falling to her knees in utter despair, the girl dropped her sword while beginning to tear up. "Why….."

"Grrrrrrrgghhh."

A deep growl started coming from behind followed by snapping twigs and footsteps. Slowly turning, the girl came face to face with the pitch-black eyes of a snarling beast. It was a six-foot-tall feline with short blood orange fur and purple tips at the end of its ears and tail.

It had ebony coloured claws, and thick long fangs in its mouth where it also clutched onto something. Snapping it shut a lump thumped to the ground and rolled to the petrified girl, stopping at her feet. What looked up was the head of a human male with short brown hair and a surprised look on his face.

"N-n-NOOOOOO!"

She screamed scampering backwards to the edge of the pit behind, roots swaying amongst torn flesh, clothes and pulsing soil. The creature came closer, still growling and blood dripping from its mouth.

"P-please….don't…"

"That's enough, Shredder. You've had your fill already so you don't need anymore." A commanding spoke a voice.

From behind the beast came someone dawned in a dark green cloak with larger and slightly lighter green patches all over. He looked around fourteen with dirty blonde hair and a slim face as he reached out to pet the feline beside him.

"Also, instruct the others to lay off and to not kill her for now."

While his arm was outstretched to pet, the cloak he wore gave way to a set of polished silver armour with light blue around the outline. Shredder stopped growling, reared its head and gave a deep roar which forced the girl to cup her ears. Peering to the side she watched a massive black-scaled python with a pair of legs sticking out swallow it before slithering away. Her stomach turned at the sight.

Shredder stopped roaring eventually and began shrinking in size, its fur growing longer while changing to a bloody orange with white at the tips of its ears and tail. Its eyes became a light blue with its fangs and claws shrinking until it had become the size of a regular cat with long fur. It went to the boy and climbed him before perching on his shoulder who scratched its chin.

"Awww, you're so cute. Now back to business." He said, turning to the still petrified girl and crouching down.

"You're from the Slane Theocracy, aren't you? The ones that worship Six Gods, I think."

"T-t-that's…um…yes…."

"Uh, so I really am in the Overlord anime world. That crazed goddess was telling the truth," the boy groaned, rubbing his head while getting back up.

"I wonder if he's anywhere around here. Oh well, he's never been one to stay in one place if he could help it."

"Hey, u-um. What are you taking about?"

"Oh, it's nothing. But I'm going to let you go back to the Theocracy, and while you're there I'll need you to tell those cardinals something. In three days Alex, me, will bring a great calamity to the entire kingdom in the form of a massacre on its people," he said, with his eyes darkening and a slight grin creeping on his face.

"…W-what!?..."

"Don't worry about it. Well, not until the timer runs out anyway. Toodles!" Alex pulled his leg back and brought it at the girl, kicking her over the hole behind and skidding out the woods.

"Arrrghhh, ghu-ghuuu."

Getting up, the girl held her sides as she felt a rib or two move inside.

'Rrr, I need a potion.'

Reaching in her pocket she brought out a bottle of blue liquid which she cracked open and swigged down.

"Mha, ha.. _sniff_ …Sh-Shelly..Merudy.. _sniff_ ….Simon, Eric.. _sniff_.."

After drinking the healing potion and feeling her ribs hardening themselves, she almost broke down into tears before remembering what Alex had said.

"Three days. Three days and the massacre begins."

"Nayayaya…..brbrbr…"

Next to her, still strapped to the tree they left them at where the horses they used to get here.

"I -I need find Thousand Leagues Astrologer and her team. Now!"

* * *

 **A new character comes into the mix threatening an entire kingdom. The girl who spoke with Thousand Leagues Astrologer in the alley is now looking for her team again. All the while they are in position of Garmadon and light sabers brought into existence. Will they be able to meet before time runs out?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"I can't believe him!" Albedo yelled in disgust. "A human being able to defeat a guardian is absurd!"

"And yet he managed to beat you," Ainz said. "Given you didn't go all out in that fight, you still lost. So, you stand to criticize yourself Albedo."

"Mmm.. forgive me lord~."

'It is strange though,' he thought, resting his face in his hand. 'Not only did she lose, but she deployed Einherjar way too early. She'd never be that reckless.'

Albedo and the rest of the guardians stood in the throne room with Ainz atop his throne, golden scepter bobbing in the air beside him. In the center levitated a giant golden oval mirror with vines etched into the frame that swirled to a diamond shaped emerald at the top. As a pair of maids stood on either side of it, the mirror's reflection showed Garmadon slung over the shoulder of a muscular, dark skinned man with a mohawk.

"As things stand, I believe it's safe to say that Garmadon won't pose much of a threat in the future," Demiurge said, pushing up his glasses. "I doubt we'll receive any more problems from him. Like another friggin hole in the tomb."

Demiurges posture was shaking very slightly with fists clenching.

With Albedo by his side, Ainz held his head in one hand with his eyes momentarily void of light. "Calm yourself Demiurge, thinking rash like that won't help at all. It's how the powerful trip over themselves. In moments like these it's important not to be wishfully thinking, but to be learning of what has transpired before us," raising a finger his sockets glowed a deep crimson.

"Firstly, why couldn't we see anything after Garmadon used his trump card? What could he have done that overpowered Shalltear and create what he claimed to be 'a super nova'? That would mean he possibly poses an artifact on pare with a World Item." Ainz raised a second finger.

"Secondly, the Slane Theacracy intervened in the end because they were looking for him, that'd mean they more than likely have spies or contacts in the Re-Estize kingdom, extensive surveillance magic or all three," he lifted another finger.

"Finally, how do you think the control dimension will view this? Will they make it so that Garmadon becomes a pawn for the enemy if we do nothing?"

Demiurge stood taken back a bit before bowing.

"My apologies, lord Ainz. I was distracted by anger and merely saw what we could do now rather than what would happen in the future. Your insight and foresight truly surpass me."

'I seriously doubt that sometimes.'

Ainz internally sighed as he rested back in his chair in thought. 'And now we've got lightsabers in the mix? I would've loved it if he summoned them while he was here. The saga back in my life gave me such a thrill, even being over a century old. But now that the Slane Theocracy has them, who knows how they're going react to the sabers, and we'd be in a lot of shit if he brought out the death star. It's colossal build rivaling that of the moon with it's-NO, no I shouldn't think like that. Nazarick against the death star would only leave a canyon the size of Star Wars popularity in the ground. I need to control my urges-.'

Suddenly the double doors to the room burst open with a lone figure standing, his arms spread wide and dawned in orange.

"Looorrd Ainz!" Pandoras actor yelled

The maids either side of the mirror guided it to one side of the room as the financial guardian marched like a robot to the base of the throne and assuming his military salute.

"I have arrived with the requested gold from the treasury, amounting to not even a mere speck the worth Nazarick is!" he spun to face the doors and clicked his fingers.

Eight giant platforms levitated through the arch way with mountains of gold on each accompanied by CZ delta, Yuri and four other maids.

"As requested my creator!" Pandora's actor announced, turning back with his hand on his heart. "5 million gold for the resurrection ritual. I'm filled with honor to oversee this order and to finally walk the great halls of this tomb once again. I was worried it had been broken after the earth shook and your swift exit. How it warms my heart to see its beauty hasn't changed from when I last saw it!" He tipped his hat slightly towards Albedo. "Among other things~."

Bowing one last time, the guardians all starred with mixed looks of shock and confusion. While Ainz's jaw hung low, a green light engulfed him as he screamed internally.

'Why'd I instruct him to leave the treasury and bring the gold up here? I should've just told this actor to stay down there!'

Ignoring his own pun, Ainz moved a fist in front of his mouth. "Cough…Y-yes, thankyou Pandora's Actor."

"Hie! Das Gold für den Fluss Stix haben angehäuft, um eine sichere Passage zurück zu den Lebenden zu pflastern."

Ainz slammed his fist onto the arm of the chair. "WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT YOUR GERMAN?!"

"M-my apologies, Lord Ainz."

While Pandora's actor slunk back with his hand rested upon his heart, a green glow enveloped Ainz for a split-moment.

"Now, all that's left is to begin Shalltears resurrection," Ainz announced, heaving himself off his throne and snatching the scepter from midair. "Albedo I'll need you to watch her name while I perform the ritual. If she's still under mind control once she is revived, I may have to do the unspeakable."

"Don't worry about it," Demiurge voiced, stepping forward. "If that does come to pass we will be the ones to take care of her."

"Demiurge…~"

'Garmadon faced Shalltear to save me from the pain of having to kill her myself, but as the guild master I must protect the legacy and pride of both myself and my friends.'

"Please lord," he said, clenching his hands. "To let our Supreme ruler face such danger without his guardians acting would be a tarnish on our pride."

"I hear you. But…~"

"If Shalltear continues to revolt against Nazarick, then the guardians of Nazarick should be the ones to deal with her," Albedo said behind Ainz with a transparent screen hovering before her. "Please step down my lord. As Demiurge said, this is something that we guardians must take responsibility for with pride."

'….She's right, the NPC's of Nazarick now have wills of their own. Hopes and beliefs, if I were to continue treating them as NPC's then even my pride in my friends creations will diminish.'

"I understand," Ainz mulled over before caving in. "Then if that happens then I will let you deal with it my guardians."

"We won't fail you. All that we ask is that you stay by our side. If you leave us, who will we pledge our fidelity to? Without a supreme being to rule the guardians would cease to have a purpose. We know our creators didn't reject us, but it is far too lonely when no one is here~."

"…..You're right~," Ainz sighed, gazing at the numerous banners hanging throughout the throne room of his fellow guild mates. "It is lonely when everyone else is gone~…. Continue to protect me my Guardians, now let us begin!"

"Lord!"

'It will cost 500 million gold to revive her,' Ainz thought, raising his staff. "Shalltear, resurrect!"

The six gems in the scepters head each shined bright and a transparent wave pulsed forth towards the mountains of gold which rippled and liquified. The mountains gushed over into a golden sea which flowed towards the base of the stairs before condensing on the spot and continuing to run in. Eventually it took on Shalltear's petit form with golden skin until becoming pale with silver hair.

"Nnnh-Albedo?"

Albedo watched closely as a name popped on the screen in white. "Be at ease my lord. It would seem she is free of the mind control."

"Wonderful," Ainz breathed, kneeling beside Shalltear. Reaching up, his hand disappeared into a black void with bits of light dancing inside before pulling out a folded dark purple blanket. He gave it a toss over Shalltear, unfolding in midair and somehow landing squarely over her body say for the feet and head. "... Shalltear?..."

Lazily, Shalltears eyes fluttered open before blinking around until resting on the supreme being above her. "Is that you lord?~"

"Thank goodness," Ainz gasped, sending his scepter levitating to the side to cradle her in his arms. "I'm sorry Shalltear. This was all because of my mistake."

"No please lord. I'm not sure what's going on here, but, being in your arms can't possibly be a mistake~," Shalltear sung as she climbed Ainz and embraced him around the neck with an ear-to-ear smile and a blush on her face. "Hehe, so this is where my first time will be~?

'C-crap! She's getting turned on….'

"Excuse her lord," Albedo spat, shooting daggers with a shadow over her eyes. "But I believe Shalltear is still out of it."

"Huurr?!"

"Y-you must be tired," Ainz panicked, brushing the petit vampire off. "We'll go over the details later."

"There's one thing I would like to know," Shalltear questioned, glancing around at the other guardians. "How did I get back to Nazarick when I was just hunting humans in the woods? Oh and, why am I naked on the floor and why is everyone acting so strange? I hope I didn't cause any trouble for you or Nazarick, lord Ainz.~"

"You don't remember?"

"Uh, no.~"

"I'm sorry Shalltear. Then please tell me what you remember last."

Shalltear's face contracted from straining to remember. "Well, other than hunting the humans I remember giving you my regards before leaving the great tomb to join Sebas. After that we rode a carriage into a large town.~"

'So, the one who used the world class item on her remains a mystery,' Ainz mulled over. 'Though the one who'd most likely knows not only refuses to speak up, but is now in the clutches of the Slane Theocracy. I feel like this is all connected somehow.'

"Do you feel strange in anyway?"

Shalltear pattered herself down before resting her head in her hand. "I feel like I usually do.~"

"I see."

"OH-O, OH NO!" she screamed in panic while looking down the blanket she wore. "It's gone, my chest is a wash board!"

"You lamprey!" Albedo barked stomping forward. "Do you have any idea how much suffering you put the rest of us through?"

"So you've conveniently forgotten?~" Demiurge mused in annoyance, pushing up his glasses. "But your pears still remember your blunder!"

As the Guardians bickered non-stop, Ainz sunk onto the lower step in mental exhaustion. His nonexistent heart can't take any more surprises today. Looking up, Aura and Mare where now pestering Shalltear about how she should atone for her folly.

Suddenly, for a spilt moment Ainz experienced a daja vu. The guardians hazily formed his past guild mates and a deep pain ached within the depths of his bones. Reaching out, his hand grasped nothing but air and the vision disappeared. Moaning in disappointment, he slumped back.

Albedo seemed to have noticed this and stood before him, bending over with a smile and an outstretched hand. "We await your orders~."

"Albedo~."

Reaching out and grasping her hand, Ainz was hoisted to his feet. In that moment, the small part of him that could still feel became lighter, as if he'd been relieved of a great burden. But he couldn't put his bony finger on it.

"As leader of the guardians, I recommend scolding her mercilessly."

"I second that. Don't go easy on this bone head, lord Ainz," Aura laughed with a grin on her face and hands behind her head

"Agreed, harsh words are the least she deserves at this point," nodded Cocytus.

"Shalltear, accept your punishment with humility and grace, okay," Demiurge smiled at the petit vampire with the slightest hint of malice in his voice.

"W-well, you don't have to be hard on her lord. If you don't mind," Mare stuttered, hugging her staff closer.

As Albedo brought Ainz before Shalltear, he realized what that feeling from before was. It was warmth, the warmth you feel from the love of your family. Hero hero, Suratan, Garnet, Touch Me, Flat foot, and all the other thirty-five members were like his own brothers and sisters. But on the day when the servers were to shut down and they didn't come, he thought he'd dwell in solitude forever. Though now he's seeing the same kindness and love he felt with his friends through the children they left behind. How could he act down now? He's more than just their ruler, he's practically their god-father, if not father.

"Hehehe…Hhahahahahaha," he bellowed. "I deserve the scolding. Despite all the information we gathered, I'd never thought something like this would be a possibility. The mistake was mine and mine alone, understand? Shalltear, you are not guilty of anything. I want you to remember that, always.~"

Shalltears face slowly brimmed with hope and smile came across her face. "Thank you lord Ainz."

"Demiurge, you will explain everything to her once she has had a chance to rest."

"Lord, by the way, Sebas failed to return to Nazarick as ordered."

"He is bait. We don't know who targeted Shalltear, or why. But since Sebas was with Shalltear, there is a strong possibility that he will be next. Albedo, I want you to gather two teams trained in stealth and have one scout out the area near Sebas and the other to keep survaliance on Garmadon."

"Lord~."

"Sebas may be bait, but I have no intention of letting them bite. If they make even the slightest, move on him, we will end them."

'Some day, we will meet the one who used the world class item on Shalltear. And when we do, I will pay back this debt a thousand-fold.'

"Ah, question Master,"

"What is it Mare?"

"Umm…Garmadon left a big scare in the forest. Would you like me to repair the damage for you?"

"There's no need for that."

"Huh?"

"If you destroy a magic sealing crystal the unleashed power will go wield. It's even capable of destroying a large area apparently."

"What? But Garmadon never used a sealing crystal, and I've never heard of a crystal reacting like that."

"Because I just made it up. And since it's unlikely Garmadon will be returning to E-Rantael, the people will accept both the crystal story and his eath during the fight at face value. Now that we know sealing crystals are rare in this world, I doubt anyone will waste one to test it. Also, I made a major miscalculation before. It is now plainly obvious that there is someone else out there with the strength to harm Nazarick, and if there's another there could be more. I want to take immediate steps to strengthen Nazarick with the intel we've gathered. I was thinking of using my necromancy skills to make an army of undead. But we'll need bodies to turn….~"

"I was actually thinking about that Lord," said Albedo. "It's true that undead soldiers could protect us from most intruders, but they are relatively powerless overall. Case in point, one human corpse can only become an undead of level 40 or below."

"You make a good point."

"There's a village of lizard men in the area nearby, Aura found them while scouting. I wonder what kind of undead their corpses will make~."

 **Later**

"And that's your assignment," Albedo announced, within the tombs 9th floor with a small crowd before her. "Are there any questions?"

The crowd was split into two groups, each comprised of three shadow demons, four homunculi (both male and females with pale skin and grey hair) and four silver furred werewolves standing over two meters tall. A homunculus from the group assigned to monitoring Garmadon raised her hand.

"What should happen should we enter the capital of the Slane Theocracy?"

"You will continue cautious observations. Werewolves will assume constant human form in the presence of other humans unless deemed absolutely necessary, and you may no longer attack humans for game."

 **Along the road**

"Open your eyes boy, we need to talk," echoed a voice.

"Hmmm, no mum I wanna sleep.. ~snore~…, just five more mi-!"

 _Slap!_

"Arrgh, alright, I'm awake," snapping my eyes open and sitting up, I was met with the soft bounce and feeling under my hand. Looking down I found myself seated in a fluffy pink recliner looking chair surrounded by a landscape of pure cogs as far as the eye could see, hamming away.

Great and small, countless pillars of them climbed from the ground up to several much, much larger gears levitating above that slowly turned. Each were in turn was connected to a cog that was so big it covered the majority of the sky, reaching out to the horizon. Gawking in shock, I marveled at it. "Ooooh myyy gawwd, this is unbelievable. It must've taken forever to make this… But that's impossible, no way can those gears be held up one another alone…..."

"You're not dead if that's what you're thinking," spoke a feminine voice.

Twisting my head around I faced a woman who sat cross-legged in a pale throne outlined in gold with red cushions on the armrests, seat and backrest. Above her head, embedded into the face of the throne was an emerald the size of a fist. The woman in question had long blonde hair which stretched down to her lower back. She was resting her head on her fist with the elbow on the arm of the chair. She had a bit of a scowl on her face, but my eyes were wondering elsewhere.

"If you keep on checking me out I might consider taking you're sight for this conversation. Not like you'll be needing it."

"Hey, I take offence from that," I said, crossing my arms and lying back, my heart thumping away as I tried to remain calm. "I'll have you know I was admiring the beauty before me. And it's not like your getup doesn't say 'look at me'."

She was in a crimson dress that had slits down the sides that stretched down to her ankles, something like Abledo's. Though unlike the demonic succubus (or fallen angel, I'm not fully sure what she is with all the different sources I've read), the top half of this attire had two pieces of cloth going up her middle that covered her chest, which I swear are 'G' cups.

On her wrists, ankles and neck she wore a blue metal collar with gold outlining and a circular sapphire in the center. She also had a purple cloth tied around her waist with ends that stretched past her shoeless feet.

"That aside, who are you? And isn't my right eye supposed to now be in affect since I'm sleeping?"

After remembering all the abilities my character had in the fight against Shalltear, I realized that all the dreams I've been having up till this point have been events occurring in the present. While I slept my right eye would show me the current situation of the last thing on my mind before losing consciousness. Like how after repairing Nazarick I thought of the trouble I'll have beating Shalltear, the dream I had next was a vision of what she was doing right there and then.

"My name is Vosdulite, envoy of the being Luvike. Humans in your world call him, God. As for your eye, you weren't thinking of anything in particular, so I used this opportunity to slip in a conversation or two."

"…..Is this a joke? …..I mean it's a pretty sick one if you ask me."

"This is real Garmadon. Or would you prefer your real name, James? You seem to enjoy being called someone you're not."

"HOW THE….?!"

"James, I dragged you from your own world and granted your wish. Did you really think I wouldn't know your name?"

"Wai-… you _granted_ my wish?... Oh, now it makes sense, so you're Geader. Never thought I'd see the day, or dream. First, I'd like to say thanks for granting my wish, second, can you please answer a few questions for me?"

"By all means, ask away."

"Why me, where are we, do you have anything to eat here and can I please know if I'm going home soon? I wanna show off these powers."

"Hm, you humans are always so greedy. You're in the soul of this dimension, the 'inner workings' if you will. All the cogs here represent an aspect of it. Whether it's a life, inorganic substances or a natural phenomenon, it's here. Also, there's nothing for you to eat here, unless you want to devour the gear of fresh harvest over there," she mocked gesturing to a random cog in one of the pillars.

"Yeaa, nah I'll pass. Metal doesn't sit well in my stomach," I frowned, patting my belly. "Okay, next barrage of questions, why grant me my fictional character's powers, why wasn't I able to heal my wounds even while Shalltear and I were in that space-time pocket? I thought I could heal immediately like I was immortal."

"Are you an idiot?" Vosdulite monotoned. "You couldn't heal because Shalltear stole all of your healing abilities when she struck you with her lance. Though when you pulled its head out of your chest there was enough healing left in you to mend the hole in your chest and the burns shortly after. But from there on you couldn't heal yourself anymore."

'Wait, does this mean I have a limited amount of healing before I'm drained dry?'

"A-and, the shard I got from tearing out Shalltear's heart?" I asked with a shudder, remembering how her heart thumped away in my hand after tearing it out and it changing into the shard a little after.

"That shard is the source of your healing. Stab yourself with it and there's a fifty-fifty chance you'll get your healing back."

"And the other fifty?"

"Your heart will explode from the inside along with every blood vein throughout your body right before you die of a heart attack and melt as if you were wax in a fire. Something like that 'Indiana Jones raiders of the lost ark' you watched when you were a kid."

"How do you know that?!" I turned in surprise.

"Oh please, while you were galloping around in this world I made it a point to know all your life. And I do mean _all_ your life," she sarcastically winked at me.

'What could she…. Oh god no,' I flinched at the sudden thought. 'This is a total invasion of privacy…..'

"Eheheheh, no pressure then in getting my healing back I guess."

"Now as for why, you've been assigned a holy mission from the great one," Vosdulite got up and extended both arms. The cogs at her feet suddenly stopped rotating and fell away into darkness with a clacking noise followed by several others around them. A transparent light blue orb rose from the pit, hovering in the air, it had patches of dark blue on random areas.

"Currently, this world is one of millions that don't believe in God. What's worse is that the dead have taken physical form, drying up the life pool of the planet," a black dot appeared in the heart of the sphere and began snaking out like roots in all directions while the blue orb changed to a shade of dark orange.

When the black tips reached out to the surface, the ball shattered from all sides.

"If this continues with the lack of faith in God it shall perish. The reason why you've been chosen is because out of all those who know of this dimension's story, you're one of those who has more knowledge and belief in the almighty one."

'Shit, is she referring to my junior Christian school and how I was reminded of the bible in Christmas?'

"Y-yeah, so? This dimension is the product of someone's imagination and creativity in my world. It won't end unless everyone gives up on it, if the power of belief is real. And believe me, there are those who love what this world offers," I jumped up and stood on the other side of the crevice where the orb had come from before, the shards around us began shaking and the rolled back into the pit. "Let me tell you, it will be decades before everyone gives up on 'Overlord' in the control dimension."

"You believe so?" Vosdulite responded, I hopped over the fissure and stood right in front of her while she peered into my eyes. Her collar bone was at eyelevel.

'Aaah, she really smells nice.'

"I know so…"

'Cut the pervy thoughts, cut the pervy thoughts.'

"Then you should know that if one dimension dies like this, it's presence is erased from all others," Vosdulite smiled, clasping my shoulder. "So when this goes, it'll be like 'Overlord' never even existed and since you're here, the same thing will happen to you."

"Gha!" I chocked on my words as I tried to comprehend what she said. "…I …would have never even existed?"

Vosdulite's smile grew into a grin before she shoved me to the side, tripping over myself and landing flat on my backside.

"Now you're getting it~," Vosdulite chuckled, seating herself back on the throne and assuming her previous position. "Create enough believers, cut down the undead to none and you'll be sent home. Furthermore, I won't speak to you like this again until you make some progress. One more thing, there's another person in the world with you that'll probably help you. You two should know each other when you meet."

"Wait-!" before I could continue, purple chains shot out of gaps between cogs around me before snacking around my arms and torso then yanking me down. The cogs broke away and I fell into complete darkness.

"….."

"…..…"

"Hey, he's waking up."

"Nnnn…..arr," '…wa-heavy..,' creaking my eyes open, I felt like I was sitting in an upright position. The scenery before me was blurred with light and shadow. A humanoid figure squatted over my lap. 'Hey, hey, hey who's this chick? And why is she in my lap?'

She was young, a little under my age with pink hair and sapphire armour outlined in gold. She reached out and began pocking my chest before rubbing it. Looking around, I was at one end of a small dimly lit room illuminated by a lantern hung by a nail on the side of the wall. My coat was folded neatly on one of the wooden benches fixed into either side with tatters, tears and bits of dust all over. Sealed chests laid under each chair and the outline of a door was visible at the other end.

"Please stop. This is weirding me out…..," I protested, trying to lift my arms up in an attempt to push her off, but I found I could only move my left and even then was somehow securely bounded behind me followed by chains rattling.

I strained my head around to take a look and found both were cuffed to the wall by my wrists with thick black shackles going half way up my forearm. Orange rings were engraved around each on both ends and runes with the same colour glowed throughout. The chains themselves seemed to be made of ordinary iron. "Kwa…..?"

"Alright, coming," came a women's voice from the other side of the room.

The door at the other end lowered outwards with orange light gleaming in before landing with a light thud to reveal a camp fire and a pair of people sitting on either side chowing down on steaming bowls of soup.

'Why do those guys look familiar?'

A figure, shadowed by the fire's light came in with a large witch's hat perched atop their hat and blue twin ponytails stretched down to the ankles

"It's about time you got up. I thought it would've been a lot longer until you did after what Harold did to you," coming closer, the lantern illuminated her features to have calm blue eyes looking down at me with a disappointed expression.

'There are so many things wrong with this attire…. Why's she wearing ragged pajamas and a funky sombrero?'

"Oh hey, you're Thousand Miles Asssssstrologer…. right?"

"It's Thousand _Leagues_ Astrologer. Don't go making names up," she said coming closer, the girl on my lap got up. "Here Laurissa, dinners ready, enjoy."

A steaming wooden bowl with a spoon sticking out levitated from behind Thousand Leagues and towards Laurissa. She took it graciously with a nod before scooping a spoon full while making her way out.

'She doesn't say much, does she?"

Thousand Leagues took a seat on one of the benches and another bowl levitated in through the archway and rested into her hands before she also started eating.

"Uuumm…..So, can you please tell me where I am before you get to into your meal. And where my stuff is, I know I had bag of coins in my pocket," I shuffled my pants around to double check there wasn't a bulge. "I'd also like my coat back, it's a bit chilly."

" _gulp_. Four hours unconscious and you're worried about some gold coins? They've been confiscated, along with that shard you tried to hide before. Also, you're in the back of a wagon, sorry but we can't leave you outside," Thousand Leagues said before pointing her spoon at the folded coat. "[Levitate], and yes, you can have your coat. Speaking of which, how's that back of yours doing, not aching anymore right?"

As the fabric lifted itself off the bench, it unfolded in midair while floating over and embracing me from behind, I gave my shoulders a role. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "Yeah, it's alright. Thanks ….. and I understand, if I were in your shoe….stockings…..I guess….. I'd do the same. "

'If I were the captor I would've transported you in a truck with an onboard prison. So much armour on board….'

"Hmmm, you're my most understanding hostage yet," she complimented with a slight giggle, waving her hand and a third wooden bowl levitated through the open door and settled down in front of me. "That's good to hear about your shoulder. The gash that ran down your back looked pretty serious, but nothing a healing potion couldn't fix~. But I've gotta ask, how'd you get it?"

"Eerrrr…."

 **Earlier**

"What….where the hell is this?!" Shalltear cried out standing with Einherjar by her side in the middle of a vast waste land.

Towers of all heights and shapes rose from the ground at angles so far, they should be falling. Up above in the sky, clouds sped by as if time had accelerated while the sun hung high, but it didn't hurt to look at. Even as a vampire she couldn't feel this sun's rays nor could she feel a breeze.

"Not exactly the most beautiful of places to beat you, I admit-," came a voice next to her.

Instinctively Shalltear spun round and swiped at the source but found her hand running down the side of the boy she'd been fighting. Still in the motion she thrust her lance at him just as the ground at their feet erupted and gave way to a giant bronze pillar.

Both Shalltear and Einherjar had no problem backflipping to safety as the towering cylinder slowed to a halt, and atop stood Garmadon unfazed while starring down at them. His right eye had a trickle of blood leaking form the base.

"-But as my trump card I'll gladly take pride in it," he announced, raising his hands as though he was about to conduct while a smile crept onto his face. "Welcome, to my imagination!"

"You-you dare look down at me insect!" Shalltear yelled, gripping her lance harder. "DON'T GET AHEAD OF YOUSELF HUMAN-?!"

Suddenly a spiral of blue pixels swirled from behind Garmadon and began cork screwing at Shalltear. Soon a massive obsidian cylinder with a curved top, two fins aside the back and a tall one in the middle formed and continued to plummet towards them.

Both the vampires leaped out of the way and the object smashed into the ground, crumbling under its own weight before combusting.

Ka-BOOOMMM!

Shalltear and Einherjar were both caught in the blast, the searing flames and extensive heat burning away at their bodies. By the time Shalltear landed with a crooked leg, half burnt face and smoldering arm, her newly stolen healing was already in affect. Einherjar wasn't so lucky though, she lay motionless a little way off with half her body already missing. She faded away with thick lines of steam rising from her body while her eyes where lively open yet lifeless.

 _Clap, clap , clap-clap-clap-clap…_

"I congratulate you for surviving that nuclear submarine," Garmadon applauded with a smirk. But as he clapped, landscapes on both sides folded up and countless mini pixel storms formed all around, up in the air and down on the ground.

Each one brought into existence dark blue tanks with twin barreled cannons on either side, black and scarlet jets with twin turbines in the wings equipped with many missiles. Behind him came a gigantic flying dreadnaught with an airstrip atop and single barreled cannon under belly. The cannon lowered towards her and green energy began welling up inside.

"But in this world, I have no restraints."

Raising a hand, a dragon-headed cane manifested itself in his clasp before bringing it down in Shalltear's direction.

"FIIIIRRRE!"

 **Present**

"-It's ummm…. complicated," I answered with a slight giggle. The bowl at my feet began beckoning to me.

"Hmm, guess you don't have to answer if you don't want to," she sighed having not got the answer she wanted.

Thousand Leagues clicked her fingers and then both my arms went slack accompanied by metal clanking. I tried lifting both my arms but my right was still unresponsive, grabbing the palm I inspected the insignia in the middle, the metallic fingers drooped back lifelessly. It had become dull with a crack racing between the yin and yang three quarters down.

'Man this draw back on my character really is the pits…I'm not even left handed,' while mentally complaining and jerking my hand around to get some life into it, the faint scent of the bowl tickled my nostrils.

I decided to put the matter of my arm to rest and reached out for the bowl-

 _-Grrgrrrguuughhruuu….._

I froze midway with my stomach aching while embarrassment rammed into my heart. Thousand Leagues eyes widened mid bite turning to look down at me. "You know, if you're that hungry you might as well go ahead and create some food for your-self after that. That _is_ what your magic is based on, right? Though even that's going to be pretty much pointless while 'zero-point shackles' are in effect. They negate all forms of magic the bearer would possess, _hawp_. Bfat toof be told, I woldf bewn fntefed in faw-."

"Please stop talking with your mouth full. You remind me of my brother when he eats sloppily~. 'The eleventh seat of the black scripture should have more manners than that'," saying the last part in my best posh Britishman impersonation I swiped the bowl and pressed it between my knees, taking a quick spoon full. But that just made her look a little confused.

'Oohhh….I hate it when people look at me like I'm an idiot,' I thought, letting the soup rest in my mouth. 'Hmm, this is good…..beef? Not as good as my worlds, but what the hey.'

She was right though, probably. The cuffs were still on me with the runes glowing deeply, and I couldn't see them coming off anytime soon.

" _gulp._ Sorry about that, so yeah I would've been interested in what food foreigners eat," she said before taking another spoon-full.

"So you abducted me just to find out my eating habits? Yeesh, talk about extreme," I giggled, giving some thought to it. "Okay, if I could use my powers I think I'll make… some bangers 'n' mash with a side of backed beans. Oooooh that just makes me hungrier," moaning I took a bigger load using my left arm. It felt weird using it in place of my right.

'Even if I didn't have these shackles, I still can't use my creation powers until those 24 hours are up, and I never drew or made food out of LEGO, but she doesn't need to know that. Why'd I put this kind of draw back on my trump card?'

"Uuurr, what kind of meal is that? It sounds like a mix of people types-."

" _guugh cough cough cough….._ No, no, you've got the wrong idea! Bangers 'n' mash is just another way of saying sausages with mashed potato and often with baked beans where I'm from. We're no cannibals, honest."

"Hurrrgh, you had me going there. While on the topic, I'm curious who the 'we' are. We've never heard of someone like you in the Re-Estize kingdom before, we're you from?"

'Oh Christ, what do I do? If I say I'm from the Baharuth empire chances I'd be executed on the spot, same goes with the Re-Estize kingdom….. oh dam it, I don't know any other kingdoms from this world that the Theocracy aren't on bad terms with. '

"Oh, I'm from …Australia. It's a country far up North, doubt you've heard of it."

"You're right, I haven't. To the best of my knowledge this domain only has the three kingdoms….it must really be far up North. So, what's it like, from what I've learnt of you in our first…encounter….. I'm in doubt that religion's a strong of a thing compared to here."

'I just realized Australia is South of nearly everything. Man, I just flipped the world upside down.'

"Oh no, we don't have that strong a religion. But we do have multiple ones, the most popular one is Christianity. It dictates the world was created by God, that's him in both name and stature. But as popular as it is it's grown weaker and weaker with each generation, so our economy is based on politics, emotions, business developments and resources. As for the country itself, well… the funny thing is, is that it's built on a foundation of blood, torture, slavery, invasion and plans for a convict island, hehe….~ Not exactly something you'd expect from a county that ended up the way it has."

"Well that's something… unexpected. But a successful kingdom always has its empire built on a foundation of slavery and conflict-."

"Actually, we elect our ruler every four years. We got rid of the monarchy system a good while back, so it's no kingdom."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be, we do alright without a king or queen, _hawp_."

'We invented so many things after changes like those in history. But I best keep that to myself. It'd be hell on earth if they got designs for an atom bomb.'

" _gulp._ Soooo now that I've answered your questions, mind answering mine?"

"Shoot, _hawp_."

"…You're taking me to the Theocracy, aren't you..and how young are you? You look like you're nineteen or something."

" _gulp._ That's because I am….. and yes we are. You don't look that old yourself if we're talking age."

'…no..no, no, no, no, NO! If I'm brought before those priests I'm gonna lose it….. Period.'

"….Well… I'm two years younger than you.. surprise~."

"That's not _that_ big of a shock. Some of our new recruits are still in their junior years-."

'Okay, I knew medieval military trained people at a young age but this is ridiculous.'

"-so it's not all that surprising. Our orders were to either recruit you, or kill you and I'd rather not have the blood of someone young on my hands. If it can be helped," she said, staring off into space for a moment before raising her spoon as if she were pointing at something. "We humans must stand our ground if we want to survive, that is the only way to true peace~."

"Okay, I've just gotta ask. Why'd you join the Theocracy's black scripture? I remember you saying something like that earlier with the same passion and it's making an itch in me that needs to be scratched. Surely there were other things you would've wanted to do?"

" _gulp,_ Well, I know I said before that I joined for the benefit of humanity… but I also joined to help my family. They run a small business on the outskirts of the kingdom by practicing the art 'cezary kanegu'. Heard of it?"

"Can't say that I have."

'Though it certainly sounds familiar.'

"It's an art that involves engraving pictures into metal panels or bending metal into sculptures. We've practiced it as a family tradition for generations, but I've never found an interest in it. It's not really a popular product to sell anyhow, so we didn't make that much money. The only ones who buy it are noble men and a number of churches."

"That's rough. So, you joined to support them financially? _Hawp"_

"Well of course I did, I wanted them to live safer, happier. Away from all those monsters. Back before I was recruited, we lived in a small town away from the capital, one of the closest to the boarders. We just didn't have the money to move further in," she said, laying the bowl on her lap. "But it's more than just that. Every night when I went to bed I could hear the cries and howls of beasts in the forest, they plagued my dreams…."

Thousand Leagues hands began shacking and her breathing heavier and heavier. The poor bowl in her clasp was also trembling with her to the point I thought it would spill.

" _gulp._ Hey, calm down. You're not dreaming, now are you? No need to get so worked up," I tried to sooth her. It worked a bit and her shacking stopped, but it was obvious the thought was still in her mind.

"Thank you….. but….that's the reason why I joined the theocracy. But it's not just cuz I wanted to financially help my family, but because I want to help everyone else in any way I can. And that's my belief why humanity was chosen, and the theocracy will spear head that belief across other kingdoms. Helping others where needed and purging the filth."

At this point her face didn't show sign she was thinking of the previous topic at all but was now beaming with hope and a smile on her face. She'd gone into full ideal believer mode.

'And now I feel uncomfortable. It's like she declared a silent death threat to crooks and demi humans everywhere.'

"I'm guessing this 'filth' are human crooks and demi humans all together."

"But of course."

'Totally called it. Blimey, Geader- Vosdulite sure isn't making this easy for me, changing this one's beliefs is going to be near impossible. I'd have better luck cleaning the bathrooms of a football stadium than this.'

While in thought and the topic now dead, we both chowed down on our remaining soup in silence, eventually it was gone and I rested the empty bowl in my lap. Laying back with my eyes closed I let gave a sigh of relief.

'That was a nice _simple_ meal….'

Floor boards creaked in front of me and the weight of the bowl disappeared. Opening up, Thousand Leagues stood before me with my bowl levitating next to her.

"Thanks for the conversation, Garmadon. It was very… enlightening," she said, lifting her hand. "And I'm sorry about this," swiping her fingers a glow streaked in its path before fading, my arms were yanked back behind me followed by chains snapping together. "But we can't have you try anything while we're out."

'Oh come on! If I can't get my leg off before I sleep it's gonna hurt throughout,' I thought, Thousand Leagues was now making her way out.

"H-hey, wait I gotta pee. You can't leave me busting here."

"F-fine. But make it quick," Thousand leagues stuttered, turning back and clicking her fingers again. "[Phantom restraints]."

My arms felt slack again and held them in front of me. The shackles were still on but half a link hung lose from each.

"Make it quick, _yawn_ , I've had a big enough day as it is."

As she made her way out, I wobbled to my feet and took a step forward. The pinch in my thigh wasn't there anymore, so I wasn't limping while I walked out.

'That healing potion really did take care of most of me."

Ducking under the archway, the campsite outside was surrounded by towering pine trees on all sides. The shadows cast between the trees looked like specters residing among the branches. Up in the night sky, the stars glittered a soothing array with the lack of light pollution. Momentarily distracted by a pair of horses strapped to a tree beside the wagon, a pair of blurs whizzed by me.

 _Thunk-thunk._

Jolting around a pair of small knives were imbedded on either side of the archway, wobbling ever so slightly before becoming still.

"Dam, I missed. Next time don't move will you," beside the blazing fire sat a man with silver hair tied back into a ponytail. He juggled another knife in his hand while glaring intently at me. "I won't miss that way."

'Even his eyes throw daggers.'

"Jesus man, how do you plan on making friends if you're going to throw knives at everyone," I yelped.

"Wa-, _stab,_ AAHHH! Mother of fuc-!" In the split moment he was distracted, the guy had lost concertation while the knife was in midair and impaled his palm. "Halitosis, get me a healing potion. Quick!"

A big guy on the other side of the fire was remerging through a bag while the other was tapping the blade as if it were a fire that would burn him if he touched it.

"Just go into the bushes and come back when you're done~." Thousand Leagues heaved, while she buried her forehead into her hand. "…Idiot.."

'And that's my que to leave,' I thought, hopping off to the side and scampering behind a tree while my arm jerked around.

"Drrrrgghhh!" an agonizing scream came from the direction of the camp.

"Quit being such a baby, Harold. It's like taking thorn from your heel."

"No, it's nothing _like_ taking a thorn from the heel!"

A minute or so passed and I finished doing the do. 'Right, time to say good bye.'

"….Bye."

Turning round I ran from the clearing, weaving between trees and long jumping over bushes. As the trees sped past, everything started blurring together. Suddenly the scenery around me snapped into wooden walls and ran face first into one of them.

 _Bam!_

"UUUHUURRGHH!," falling to the ground, I cupped my face wailing and rolling from the pain. If felt like my nose was broken.

"So, you tried to run?"

Peeking through my fingers, Thousand Leagues stood above me.

"What happened?" I said with my voice slightly muffled.

"[Phantom restraints], when activated they set the target in their current location for a certain amount of time. Get too far and they shift you right back," she explained, turning back and exiting the wagon. "[Link coupling]."

"Hey, wai-," my arms were yanked back and the loose chain links on my shackles glowed golden before snapping behind me and reconnecting with the chains on the back of the wagon.

"Sweet dreams, Garmadon," She said, the door at the other end closed with the camp fire light shutting out. Soon I was alone in the small room with the single lantern on the side of the wall next to me.

"…. Well this sucks…" moving my right foot above my left I pushed my prosthetic off and revealed the silicon liner underneath. "Now I gotta sleep with this thing on…"

'Shit, I was supposed to do a job tomorrow with team Blue Rose back in E-Rantel. Guess I won't be making good on that deal for the map anytime soon.'

Laying back, I tried to get comfortable on the hard wooden floor with my arms still bound. The act made me think of the non-existent warm bed. ' _Yawn_ , now that I think about it, I'm starting to get a little homesick here.'

Listening to the sound of fire crackling, my eyes began feeling heavier and heavier.

 **A small town at the edge of the Slane Theocracy**

Ablaze, everything was ablaze. Houses crumbled under their own height, class shattered and corpse lay charred and torn. In the center of it all stood a church, it too ablaze. The half burning doors hung on busted hinges, the glass all but shattered and the bell close to falling. Inside were numerous chairs for believers on days of pray.

Aside from a row at the front all were trashed, and seated on one side of the long chair was a someone dawned in a camou green cloak whose head was covered by a hood and was in the middle of a prayer of his own.

"..Amen.," he muttered before looking up to stand before him. Upon the alter were six crumbled statues of this kingdoms' deities, and behind it a wooden cross was erected.

Close to being set ablaze, the cross had this churches priest nailed to it. Stripped of his robes the man was very much alive, but as he remained nailed to the cross the flames began licking at his limbs and was on the verge of crying in pain.

Getting up and walking out, the cloaked figure left the chapel just as the roof and the bell in the tower caved in, ringing as it went down. As he made his way through the burning hell, a small fox like creature came out of an alley and climbed up to the boy's shoulder. It had long blood orange fur and white at the tips of its tail and ears.

A soldier, clad in silver armor stumbled into the middle of the road, helmetless the man's hair was singed and rage was carved into his features. In his hands he clutched a spear with a half-burnt flag strapped around it.

"Y-you monster!" he yelled in hatred. "For the sins of your crimes, I sentence you to death, charrrr!"

The soldier charged at the boy, spear raised with a hearted battle cry. The boy didn't react until the soldier came in close, in the blink of the eye he was behind him with a glowing orange executioner sword outstretched in his right. A slight haze of heat was coming off the blade.

The tip of the soldier's spear broke off and a long gash cracked across his chest plate. His face was the now in shock. "Wh-what the hell…?" he stuttered, a cut running perpendicular to the one on his chest appeared of his face. "Fo-forgive me…father….. I tried…."

Blood burst from the cuts and they burst into flames before thumping to his knees in defeat. The boy sheathed his sword below his cloak, and as he did silver armor was revealed underneath.

"This is an ugly part of the job," he muttered, looking around at the burning scenery. The burning corpses of a husband and his wife, hugging together in a door way turned his stomach over. The boy turned his gaze away and covered his eyes while walking out. " _tch_.. These murders had better mean something in the end, Vosdulite...right… Lord?" he stared out through a gap between his fingers, his eyes hardening. "James….where the hell are you?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey-ya all, I'm still writing this thing :D!**

 **Haven't been able to post due to real life dramas and all, but here's the next chapter and hopefully the next one doesn't take forever to get posted.**

 **Before this chapter goes underway, I just want to say a few things; first I know some of you might be confused by my story and I understand that. The constant reviews have made that obvious and I'd like to take the time to say why Garmadon is so weak in certain areas.**

 **Second, these reviews are for supportive criticism and I'd like to thank the most recent reviewer ('d') post for opening my eyes further on my fanfic.**

 **He/she has encouraged me to write this part and while the description of my MC's stats may be confusing for some beforehand, I'm going to describe them as best I can for those who don't understand (and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who don't have a clear idea of it).**

 **So, if you have any questions, please let me know. I want to make this story as clear as possible outside of my head as it does inside. Once again, I'd like to thank 'd' for posting his thoughts on my story and not being a snickering troll like some (Shalltear Bloodfallen).**

* * *

 **Garmadons abilities**

Garmadon possesses the ability to self-heal almost instantly from any injury. Any part of him that is severed from his main body crumbles to ash with the exception of any blood that's already made contact with the air and will grow back in time. The source of his healing is the ruby shard comprised of millions of lives, and when he heals it uses that life force.

The jewel does this by providing energy to tissue cells and stimulating them to accelerate healing. So say there are two bottles of water, one in reserve and another that always remains full. If the second bottle loses half its water, then the first bottles' water is used to refill it. The healing works in the same way. This cell stimulation also increases his muscle strength at will, making him stronger and faster.

Garmadon can also externally use this force on others or objects, but by doing so; an appropriate amount of the life force is used. When Garmadon repaired the hole in Nazarick, he ended up using more than a full quarter of his remaining energy. He can also widen the range of effect by using his blood as an extension of himself, a catalyse.

The ruby's nature causes it to always reside in the centre of the body where all blood converges. However, to achieve this it needs to reside in the heart of its hosts body, which it does by navigating from any part of the body to. To extract it successfully, (without the use of a life syphoning tool (Shalltears lance))one must carve out the heart intact successfully.

His power to manipulate molecules and transmute materials (by manipulating the atoms themselves) is related to his healing ability. Because the jewel provides an energy that stimulates tissue cells, it's also able to do the same to particles he's close to. The jewel can also absorb their kinetic energy and in doing so slow the molecules down to the point of freezing (yes this also replenishes the ruby's energy and he can use it to suck the life out of those he touches).

His main ability to create isn't a spell of any kind, but a natural power from within his right arm. The creations manifested all stem from his creations both drawn and made from LEGO in his original world, but he can only do it by understanding how he made it, what it looked like and what he imagined it would in the first place. The creation itself is caused by the insignia in his right palm. The arm is something akin to a container that channels his mental capacity into it, allowing him to construct what he does.

Moreover, when he creates a construct it is comprised of both practical materials and his own mental energy, in this case mana, as being a product of the mind and insignia. The constructs return to their original state if Garmadon doesn't maintain physical contact, so in a way he acts as an anchor to keep them in existence. He can keep the constructs manifested by using his own blood as an extension of himself.

His trump card is the amplification of the insignias' creation ability and arms' containment capabilities resulting in a mentally created world that doesn't exist within the material one. Within it, Garmadon has complete control of the world itself and the constructs created, he doesn't even need to be touching them to keep them in existence. Though while he's able to able to control his mental landscape, he can't control those captured by it nor himself.

The amount of people affected have to be within a 50-meter radius and he needs to acknowledge their presence if he wants to capture them. This action puts a large amount of strain on both the arm and insignia, so Garmadon can only hold it for 15 minutes. After every use there's a max cool down time of 24 hrs, depending on how long he used it. During this time, he can't use his right arm or create until then.

Now for the one you all seem to speculate about sometimes, his right eye. The eye itself is both a natural and unnatural part of him by elevating his visual senses beyond normal capacity. In some cases, he can perceive actions to a tenth of a second or more if he goes all out. The eye also allows him to achieve x-ray, microscopic, binocular vision and the ability to see the flow of mana fluctuations. But the eyes' true ability is to peer through the depths of reality and visualize any location at a thought. Though the only trigger in Garmadons case is the loss of his own consciousness.

* * *

 **Hope this helps for those who are having trouble understanding the MC's powers (and I know there are a few). If you guys have any further questions that I didn't cover in this, let me know in the comments and how I can answer you. Who knows, there could be others with the same query's as you ^_^.**

 **Now, without further ado, here's the next chapter!**

 **Side note: Thankyou MadDan90 for being a supportive friend and proof-reader for this story. It means a lot :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

The land was barren, dry of moisture and wild life with dust picked up in the wind. In the middle a duo stood as though waiting for a car to pass them by while facing towards an oncoming cloud of dust barrelling towards them.

Just ahead of it, an eight-legged lizard, big as a house with light green scales atop it back with grey underneath charged while wailing about. Despite its vicious features with fangs longer than a human's arm and pointier than a knife, its yellowish eyes were wide with panic.

Behind its tick tail scampered an oversized hamster with light grey fur and a dark strip from the tip of its nose to the base of its tail. The hamster was constantly whipping the beast with a scaly tail of its own which easily extended over 4 meters, dodging and whipping again while easily keeping up.

"Milooord, sorry for the wait!" it yelled in a high-pitched voice as it dodged again and delivering a barrage of whips. "It's a Gigant Basilisk! Your faithful servant Hamsuke is now driving it towards you!"

Back at the duo, one of them was fully clad from head to toe in raven-black armour with edges outlined in gold. A red cape was draped thickly around his neck while the rest would've extended to the ankles if it weren't flapping in the wind.

"It may be large, but given its inability to evade Hamsuke I doubt it's level is very high," his deep voice echoed from within his helmet.

His compatriot, wrapped in a light brown cloak looked on in disappointment which some people have come to believe is a fixed expression of hers.

"My Lor…Mr Momon," Naberal corrected. "There's no need for you to get your hands dirty. I could simply electrify it."

"As entertaining as that would be, your spell would simply strike Hamsuke as well," he protested.

"Of course, my apologies."

It was at that moment that the basilisk was towering over them, yellowish eyes filled with wild insanity.

"HHmmmmUaarrgh~!" Momon grunted as he swung a giant sword at the basilisk.

Suddenly the beast halted its advance, grinding to a halt and snatched the first strike in its mouth. Normally the force created would've been enough to shatter its teeth, but the basilisk moved its head back when it bit down on the blade.

This minimized the impact force. Unexpected to say the least, but Ainz didn't raise Momons fame with just one sword alone.

"Nice try," Momon retorted, driving the other blade at the basilisk's lightly scaled neck.

In mid-air the blade was stomped on by the lizard and held down firmly to the ground.

Momon glared at the basilisk's face, but what starred back wasn't the mindless brute from before. It's previous yellowish eyes were now glazed over in a deep crimson.

The look it gave now wasn't of wild insanity, but actual intelligence!

"Hoh~. Seems you were concealing your true colours before, well played," Momon lightly congratulated. "STILL WEAK THOUGH!"

With that cry, Ainz let go of the sword under foot and gripped the remaining sword with both hands before pushing harder. The Basilisks teeth began crackling under the strain until giving out in splinters.

With the teeth not holding it in place any wore, the sword drove into the back of its jaw, splitting it in two before running down the full length of its body.

In an instant he'd run the full length of the basilisk, splitting even the tip of its tail in half. The basilisk's top half flopped to one side with strands of intestines, blood, organs and greeny-yellow digestive juices emptied out of it.

"Congratulations, my Lord," Naberal applauded, suddenly appearing next to him. "That mindless beast didn't even stand a chance."

"How many times must correct you, Nabe," Momon's voice echoed inside the helmet, walking back to retrieve his blade from under the basilisk's foot. "While we are as adventures, you are to address me as Momon, or _sir_ Momon, unless deemed otherwise. I know no one's around, but it's good practice in situations such as these."

It's not that Naberal detested saying Ainz's preferred alias, it's just that she sometimes had trouble addressing him as anything lower than the supreme being that he is.

"My apologies L-Momon sir. It was a grave slip of the tongue," she bowed deeply as Momon sheathed his swords onto his back.

" _sigh~_ You are forgiven. But I wouldn't call this beast totally mindless," gestured Momon to the gory mess. If he still had all of his humanity and stomach, he'd through-up at the sight. "Until the end, the basilisk managed to conceal its true intelligence-."

Momon stopped himself, seeing the dead basilisk's yellowish eyes.

'Funny, thought they'd be red now that it's dead-.'

Suddenly a murderous intent made itself known from behind from behind.

"LORD!" Nabe yelled in surprise.

In an instant, she had jetted to Momons side and deflected a strike from Hamuske's scaled tail with her drawn sword.

The tail retracted back to the oversized hamster where it swung above its head.

At this point, Momon would've reprimanded Naberal for addressing him as 'Lord'. But this was a more pressing issue.

"You ungrateful gerbil. How _dare_ you assault your master!" Naberal enraged, shifting into a pose that would allow her to quickly close the distance between the two, awaiting her orders of engagement.

But instead she felt her masters' iron cold gauntlet rest on her shoulder.

"Steady Naberal. Hamsuke doesn't appear to be himself now, look at his eyes."

At his words, Nabe looked carefully into Hamsuke's eyes. But what looked back weren't the determined dark-brown eyes of 'The Wise King of the Forest', but eyes glazed with deep crimson holding a different kind of determination all together!

"It seems to be a possession or mind manipulation spell. That would explain what happened to the basilisk before," Momon deduced, stepping closer. "Besides that, the real Hamsuke would've immediately applauded my win before."

In an instant, Hamsuke went on the offensive again, striking with the full force of his tail like a scorpion. This time, Momon was ready for it.

Unarmed, he caught the scaled tail, spun so his back was facing Hamsuke and gave it a light yank over his shoulder. Well, it was light to Momon, but in actuality, it was enough to hoist the poor fur-ball up and over before doing a slam dunk.

With Hamsuke on his back and frantically trying to righten himself, a flash of light engulfed the Raven Hero for a split second until leaving to reveal the undead king himself in a pitch-black gown, pair of white tusks upon his shoulders and golden armour on the sides.

Now able to use more effective spells without his melee armour, Ainz reached his hand out to Hamsuke who'd got a paw on the ground.

"[Hand of the puppeteer; String Sever]."

An orange ripple beat from his hand and wafted over Hamsuke who almost got back onto all fours. In a moment he froze mid-scramble, slumping down onto his back with his glazed eyes darkening and returning to their original soft dark-brown.

"M-Master…~?" Hamsuke whimpered. "H….has the time come? Has Hamsuke's usefulness been outlived?"

'Uhh…wait, what?'

Hamsuke laid completely on his back, exposing his soft round belly in despair.

"Please, quick make it. Hamsuke doesn't like pain~."

'Oh~, I see what's going on here.'

"Hamsuke, it's alright," Ainz assured in his usual caring tone, releasing Hamsukes tail and walking round to his head. "You don't remember, but you were being mind controlled by a magic user before. But rest assured, I've severed the connection."

Hamsuke looked both anxious and confused at his master for a little bit, but then started tearing up.

"So Hamsuke hasn't been cast aside and won't be skinned by the loud one~."

'Loud one..? oh, he must mean Aura.'

"~No Hamsuke, you won't be. Rest assured you're an essential ally, your uses haven't been expended at all~."

Hamsuke was tearing up even more, but Nabe told him to quit the water works. A harsh thing to say but when you spend so much time around her you get the general idea when she's trying to be comforting or rubbing salted lemons in your wound.

Suddenly there was a strong gust of wind coming across the land. Nabe instantly reacted by jumping in front of Momon, sword at the ready. Again.

Looking in the direction she was, he saw a massive shape scarring low to the ground towards them. It was a wyvern with dirty grey silver scales and dark horns pointing backwards. It was smaller in size compared to a dragon, but where it lacked in brute strength it more than made up for in speed.

"Lord Ainz," Nabe began as her Lord had reverted back from Momon.

"I see it," he replied, seeing the scaly face of the reptile. "Its eyes are the same!"

Sure enough, the wyvern's eyes were glazed over in a deep crimson as well. But unlike the two before, this one didn't hold any malice in its gaze. Instead it was akin to pure observation.

It beat its outstretched wings and began ascending rapidly before turning to a new direction and heading South.

Ainz was confused by this development, but what was more surprising was that the wyvern wasn't the only one flying in the skies South.

Countless flocks of birds, harpies, bats, griffons and other creatures capable of flight were joining in.

Soon the ground was rumbling, monsters and animals loomed from over the horizon with a cloud of dust following after them.

"What in the hel- _bleepbleep_ ," a static beep sounded off in Ainzs' ear canal, interrupting him and raising a pair of bony fingers against it. "[Message]."

"[Lord Ainz, we have an issue]," spoke Albedo. "[The beasts residing on the 6th floor are running wild!]"

'WHAT!'

"[Aura and Mare have attempted to subdue them as they're their responsibilities, but they've actively resisted them-.]"

"What do their eyes look like?"

"[….I'm sorry-?]"

"Their eyes. What colour are their eyes?"

"[..Umm…They'rrree~ RED. They're all red]."

'What's going on?' Ainz thought looking first to the sky and back to the horizon. 'Could this be a World Item at work, or is this related to Garmadon? Doubt it, even if he _did_ punch a hole right through Nazarick.'

"Assume they're all under some form of mind control. Don't expect them to be unintelligent either. I'll be returning shortly."

On that, the message ended.

"Naberal, I'll be leaving for Nazarick. I need you to get Hamsuke back to E-Rantel, finish the job and…," trailed off gazing over to Hamsuke who'd rightened himself. "…try to keep his emotions brightened. He won't be much use if he's constantly upset."

Naberals' face cringed slightly at the order. She knew there was an issue at Nazarick, but didn't like carrying Hamsuke often. He tends to shift around in her grip, making it extremely difficult to balance him.

"Yes L-Sir Momon. We'll fly above the hordes as to avoid fighting."

"Fret not. I Hamsuke, can fend off these brutes in a gif-," Hasuke froze at the sight of a group of barrelling minotaur's and several basilisks, smaller than the first but just as menacing with the blazing look of determination in their eyes. "I..if master says so, maybe leave by air we should."

"Hmf, scared of a few critters. But the wisdom of the supreme beings are absolute," Naberal monotoned.

Hamsuke rose onto his hind legs in silent defeat. Naberal got under his belly and hefted him up as Hamsuke slumped over. Her top half was almost completely buried in fur.

"[Fly]."

The pair levitated off the ground before soaring Eastward and over the oncoming hordes. They all paid them no heed, completely fixated on their charge.

"I feel like I'm going to regret not killing all these beast," Ainz groaned. "But I just don't have the time. [Teleport]."

In a sudden flash of pale light, Ainz disappeared from the landscape just as serpents, minotaur's, wolves, basilisks, dear and other beasts trampled past.

* * *

 **Interlude: Inner workings of 'Overlord'**

[Back when the universe was still one, God ruled with a loving heart to all planets throughout the cosmos. But after an eternity there were two, though God wasn't the one who had created it. Unlike the first, the second didn't exist on the material plane but rather the imaginary. An existence not unlike the space in between walls. You can't see it on the surface, but it's there.

At first, God didn't know where it came from as he was the only one who had the power to do it. but as more of these dimensions were inexplicably created, he found they were the products of imagination from the inhabitants of the first. In reality, they were stories, imagined by one but were soon shared with the imagination of many.

Normally, God would accept these new creations, and love them as something a-kin to grandchildren.

But before God could even comprehend, the number of imaginary dimensions had multiplied well beyond his sphere of care. To compensate, he set up a system so that when a dimension was born, a deity was created to oversee the new one.

So, in a way, they were still under his care by being under the care of his deities.

At some point, one of these deities became troubled that not all the dimensions worshipped God the same as the first, hers included. Feeling as though it was her duty, she worked her way around all the dimensions to change their religion, striking down deities where need be.

Though at some point, God notices and confronted the deity before decreeing, 'All shall be as it is. One's own individuality is what makes them a treasure'.

The deity protested and, as punishment, was imprisoned within the inner workings of the dimension that defiled her beliefs and had just as many religions.]

Reading those last words, Vosdulite closes the thick tome with a deep thump. It was made of black leather with a golden cross covering nearly the entirety of the front of the book.

"~Huurrghh~," she sighed, laying back in her pale throne before sliding down like a student bored of their class. "You'd think after five years they'd change some facts about that event in here," she groaned to no one.

The book she held was her bible, every race had some form of one written by them, for them and about their divine heritage.

Giving it one last look, she gave a _hurumph_ before dropping the tome by the foot of her chair and sitting up.

What was written in it wasn't all wrong though, she was trapped in the innerworkings of her dimension after attempting to overwrite every other dimension. Though it left out the part that she still had some influence from within her prison.

When a deity perishes by the hands of another, their dimension becomes the responsibility of the other. Vosdulite had countless of these under her thumb, granted she can't enter them, she can observe and send stuff into them.

"Alrightt-tah~…Let's see what those munch-kins are doing in the 'Akame ga….what's her face' dimension."

Sitting back up, Vosdulite smacked the air with her left hand- _donngg-_ and a blue disk spun into existence then duplicated into another. They both slowed down to a stop and each was focused on a particular person amongst a group of people.

One was of a young teen, dressed in casual clothing, red shirt with white and dark blue chequered shorts. She was walking through busy streets, shoulder-to-shoulder with another person with green hair, red goggles atop his head and wore a _very_ dark green jacket.

They seemed to be having a friendly conversation, though the green haired was trying to impress the other. It was so obvious that he was and, in a way, his attempts were comedic.

The other image, however, was one of an older boy. Dressed in full black jeans and a buttoned up long-sleeved t-shirt. The only other colour he had on him was a small white rectangle in the middle of his collar.

He was surrounded by people in red and white gowns while he pummelled a tall figure, who wore similar patterned clothing but wore the skull of a bull on his, with a thick red tome in one hand. In the other he held a wooden cross with a metal individual nailed to it.

"Cease this heretic order," he was yelling. "The power of Christ compels you, only he can grant you true happiness."

"At least one of them is making some progress," Vosdulite mumbled in annoyance.

She slapped the disks again into a spin before slowing to a stop and showing a pair of different figures.

One was of an elder teen in a bloodied white shirt and had a mechanical right arm. He was sleeping in the back of a wagon on a girls lap who had pink hair.

The other showed a slightly younger boy dressed in a camou green cloak. He was speeding at inhuman speed through a maze of trees and vegetation with a literal army of wildlife and mindless monsters at his side.

He swiftly halted at the edge of the forest and was overlooking a small walled up town in the distance.

"Hmm, wonder what's going to happen here," Vosdulite chuckled as the boy in camou turned to a large, dark orange furred fox with purple splodges on the tips of its ears next to him.

* * *

 **Interlude: Slane Theocracy**

The sun had risen high in the sky with scattered clouds. In the middle of a wide stretch of a dirt road, a pair of horses pulled an average wagon resembling a large wooden barrel on its side with a flat top and bottom.

At its head and clutching the reins sat silver haired-Harold in his leather armour, hunched over with a long strand of grass sicking out of his mouth.

"This sucks~," he groaned, looking though a window in the wood at the base of his seat. Within sat his other teammates, Halitosis who sat in silence and Thousand Leagues who was looking into some red liquid which pulsed into a ball. Whenever he asked her about it, she would say it's a tool for vast range surveillance.

Laurissa on the other hand sat on the floor with their prisoner in her lap. He was still sleeping, but for some reason, was crying.

" _tch_ , lucky bastard."

Garmadons capture and recruitment had been their mission from the get-go, though they'd only completed half of that. He was more than resent in joining.

Though despite that, catching him was a lot easier than he originally thought despite the fight they all watched him partake in. It was like he'd lost all his powers after the fight.

Turning back to steering the horses, he felt a soft breeze over the land and calmly listened to the rustling of the grass and the clopping of hooves.

'….But still….this is pretty nice~.'

"Harold, incoming!"

Harold snapped back into looking through the hole to Thousand leagues, she was waving her hands around and the liquid was rapidly sloshing around in the air while she glared into the ball. "How many?"

"Just one on horseback-wait, it's Aurita! She's alone…."

Strapping the rains to the rail on the side, Harold jumped onto the roof and did a quick survey of the area until he spotted a shape galloping towards them. With her chestnut hair tied into a ponytail flapping in the wind, sure enough it was Aurita.

After the meeting between their teams in the E-Rantels alley, they headed off to the Forest of Tob, as per ordered by the cardinals.

"This is unexpecteeeeddd~… something's not right. Halitosis, get out and take the reins, Laurissa, you're with me and Thousand, keep an eye on things," he yelled, unsheathing his swords. "We might have a fight coming on our hands."

As Aurita came closer, Harold and Laurissa jumped from the roof and skidded to a halt as the wagon sped on with swords drawn.

"Stop right there, Aurita!" he yelled, the horse slowed to a stop with the girl atop bearing a shaken expression. "Where's the rest of your team Auri-."

"We don't have time for this!" she blurted, jumping down and turning to the duo. "I need to talk to the Thousand Leagues right now, we need to alert the Theocracy! Something's coming, and he declared he'll slaughter the kingdom in two days from now-."

"S-slow down," Harold said, lowering his guard. "Start from the top, who's 'he', where's your team and is this about the rise of the Dragon Lord?"

She was starting to catch her breath. "No. He… he killed everyone, my entire team," she began. "A boy in dirty-blonde hair dawned in a dark green cloak with a pet fox-like creature. He somehow had control over all the animals in the Forest, he used them to kill."

At this point, the wagon was making a comeback and pulled up behind. The rear door fell down and Thousand Leagues practically jumped out at Aurita.

"Aurita!" she yelped, embracing her comrade. "I overheard what you were talking about, we can alert the next town over to send a messenger if they don't already know."

After discussing a bit further, the group climbed back into the wagon and road for the next town. "So this kid's what caught the Slane Theocracys' attention? He looks like a little cry-baby."

"He only looks like that cuz he was crying in his sleep. Sure would like to know what affected this heart," Halitosis motioned at the kid still sleeping where they left him. "Believe you me, this kids tough. He went toe-to-toe with a truly monstrous vampire and came out on top. That thing even had me quaking in my boots."

"Surely that vampire wasn't as strong as the Black Scripture-."

"Actually," Thousand Leagues spoke up in a gloomy voice. "If the Black Scripture went up against that vampire, our best chance at even surviving would probably be using one of the ancient relics of the gods."

"Y-you're joking…..?" Aurita stuttered in the complete honesty by one of _the_ Black scriptures. She then noticed the glowing orange obsidian black shackles around his forearms. "So that's why he's wearing the [zero point shackles. Though, aren't you concerned about any physical enhancements he might have?"

"Ah, don't go worrying yourself over _that_ ," Halitosis slightly boasted. "He had them on last night while he was conscious, and he couldn't do a thing. I'm thinking his right arm's a magical tool and since he wasn't able to move it last night, I believe the shackles are doing their job."

"While we're on that subject, do you know what these things are?" Thousand Leagues inquired, pulling a small pair of silver rods. "Garmadon used these in his fight and I've never seen them in any of the Theocracy records. We're thinking it might be a new magical item."

"A new….new magical items aren't something someone can make everyday~," Aurita remarked, taking one and inspecting the artefact. "Well it's got blood on it, that's a big one-."

"We….never really got round to cleaning that off."

"-I see~," still looking at it, Auritas' finger brushed lightly against a small red knob near the base of the cylindrical object. "..I wonder…"

"Oh, don't push that!" Halitosis yelped, snatching it away from her. "We should've told you, this is something _very_ dangerous."

Reaching under his chair he pulled out a lump of twisted metal with a squiggly line running through it.

"Trust me, if this axe head is anything to go off of, these weapons could easily cut through any armour," holding it away from him. Halitosis pushed the button and a long blue beam shot out, threatening to burn the opposite wall while humming before pushing it again and retracting the beam with a loud sucking sound.

"….This could be a big boon for our military forces~," Auritas' face was beginning to light up a bit with hope as she took it back and turned it over. "If we can master the incantation residing in this contraption, we might even have an unstoppable holy army in the future."

"Yeah, but it's not going to be easy," Thousand Leagues monotoned, taking both rods back into the bag. "When I was looking this over last night, I can sense magic coming from this but it's constant. Whether the beams are in or out, a type of creation magic is in use. Almost as if it were made of magic. I couldn't even find an obvious way to open opening it. The only one who knows how it works right now is lying asleep on the ground right there."

"Oh~," looking back at Garmadon, sleeping soundly with a bit of drool coming out of his mouth, Aurita found it weird he hadn't woken up yet.

"Ah that, don't worry. I slipped a little something into his dinner last night to help him rest easier~," Thousand leagues gave a slight wink.

"OY, everyone, we're coming up on Daigel!" yelled Harold from outside the wagon. "And they've done some remodelling last I saw it."

Laurissa shifted Garmadons head off her lap before got up and kicking the back door down, grinding against the road before gripping the top of the archway and flipping up to the roof. She was followed by rest with a less stylish manner.

Sure enough, the entire upcoming town didn't look like any old town. A thick brick wall had almost been completely erected surrounding the town and was towering at least 20 feet high with a gate receiving an iron barred fence. Workers were dotted around the construction.

Surrounding the entire wall were hundreds, if not thousands, of thick wooden spikes jutting from the soil and pointing outwards.

As they came closer and stopping just before the wall, a guard with his silver helmet on popped his head over the top of the wall. "Who goes there?"

"We are holy soldiers of the Slane Theocracy sent forth by the cardinals," Harold yelled at the guard. "I am a Harold Kipfler of the Clear Water scripture. We were returning from our mission but have received grave news that must be delivered to the capital, may we please speak to the lord of this town."

Thousand Leagues would've introduced the team herself, but on account the Black Scripture being the Theocracies strongest military scripture, it's ideal to keep their members a secret. Unless you expect the other person to be extremely trust worthy or extremely dead by the end of the introduction.

The guards head disappeared for a minute before the iron fence before them slowly rose while shuddering, followed by the wooden doors opening outwards. A trio of soldiers in bulky armour were making their way out to great them. One was an elderly man with his helmet under arm and short-cut pale hair, which just emphasized his age but did no justice to his stoic expression. "I am Nicoli, head knight of security and protection here at Daigel, please come inside."

Having led them inside, Nicoli explained that late last night someone half dead-on horseback rode into town with nasty scratches and bite marks all over. He claimed to be a survivor from an attack that same night in his home town North-East of Daigel.

Walking towards the main hall, now serving as the current command post, Nicoli continued to explain that the survivor said they were struck after dark. The forces were comprised of a variety woodland and magical creatures, they even had a number of dryads and a confirmed human magic caster whom set the town ablaze.

"Could it be that the animals revolted or attacked on instinct for food?"

"Unlikely, the town had its own guard division," Nicoli replied. "If animals were to overpower them, then the guards were either incompetent or the animals were organized, meaning there's someone commanding them. More than likely the magic caster."

"How many soldiers do we have will be defending?"

"33 foot soldiers and 53 magic casters, including reserves and local street security. Some of the townspeople have offered to fight, so that'll put us up 104 defenders," he answered just as they arrived out the front of the building.

They parked the wagon outside the front and everyone headed in, say for Laurisa who stayed in the behind to guard the still sleeping Garmadon.

They walked for a bit through long corridors until turning into a large room crowded with some important looking people dressed in royal clothing. In the centre was a large rectangular table with a map of the entire town with figurines on top and props for representing defences.

"Though I must say, we're lucky you're now here. We've sent a messenger to the capital for reinforcements but your participation will surely bolster our defences. Our strategists, have assumed that the opposing force will reach us this afternoon, _if_ they're really following a strategic assault."

"You need to send out another rider," Aurita spoke up. "We have information that the entire kingdom will be attacked in two days."

"Two days?" someone questioned in the room. "You must have a couple of screws loose honey; the kingdom was attacked last night and still is. Even if that were the case, if we stop them right here right now we won't need to worry about any further assaults on the kingdom."

"Seriously young lady, if we at least manage to hold out until the reinforcements arrive, we should have this dilemma behind us by breakfast."

'Somehow, I seriously doubt that,' Thousand Leagues mulled over. 'If those reinforcements don't make it here in time, we might not even make it through the night…'

"Now, for a more suitable defence, your team will be assigned to the east gate where the main force is bound to strike from-."

"Pardon sir, but I have an enquiry," Harold said, raising his hand.

"Yes young lad, what seems to be the problem?"

" _I'm 25 you old geezer_ ," he hissed through his teeth before pointing at the spot they were assigned to. "I have a problem with this formation. It looks like you've focused your main force at the Eastern and Northern gates with not much consideration for the other two."

"Well… statistically speaking that's where we predict the assault will be greatest, so it only makes sense we focus more on that point there-."

"You're assuming they won't attack the others? But as Nicoli said before, these animals are organised and could very well think about diverting your gaze to strike from behind. Or have you never seen any real combat?"

The whole room fell silent under Harolds' declaration.

"We managed to corner a robber with this kind of method-."

"Alright, that's it!" frustrated, Harold grabbed a number of pieces from the two heavily occupied gates and moved them back further behind towards the centre of town. He even put a few closer to the lightly defended gates. "How's this for a formation? Our group will assign ourselves to the Eastern and Northern gate to make up for the loss in man power."

"And the ones closer to the middle? They'd be more affective when they're closer to the enemy."

"Your source claims they had dryads when they were attacked, so wouldn't that mean an assault from underground is possible? We need to be prepared for every scenario."

"This could work," one said.

"We should provide bulkheads in case of oncoming projectiles," another said.

"What about shelter for those who can't leave the town?"

"The sewers are quite large and inforced.."

"Now we're getting somewhere…hm," Thousand Leagues was tapping Harolds shoulder. Turning round, they huddled so not to be heard by the others. "Yes?"

"This is problematic," she said. "We can't fight _and_ keep Garmadon in custody, he'd slip out of _they're_ custody if we gave them to him. What with all the chaos."

"…..I agree, you've got anything in mind?"

"….."

"….."

"….."

"No, no that's a terrible idea."

"You know it's practical, and the help we can get with those constructs would be a big boon for defence."

"Yes, but we'd still have a problem trying to keep him with us. If anything, he'll have more opportunities to make his escape."

"Which is why I'll use [Phantom restraints] again to keep him near one of use, no matter how far he goes. And before timing out I just recast it."

"…. You'll be distracted in those moments and the extra strain on you to maintain that magic will be too costly."

"Better that than loose a valuable asset to humanity in times of battle."

"Black Scripture's philosophy?"

"…..My own…"

"…."

"…."

"Fine, but as leader, your responsible for what happens next."

"I know."

As the meeting went on, there was a ton of debate as to what would happen if the front of the attack was going to be a distraction and the real force would come in through the rear. In the middle of it all, Thousand Leagues left the others in the meeting and made her way back outside to the wagon.

Looking in, Garmadon was finally up and about and having a little chat with Laurissa. But being as anti-social as she is, Garmadon was doing most of the talking.

"Oh, hey there Thous. We were just talking about what would be better; mashed potato infused with tomato paste or a variety of spices with ginger instead. What's your opinion?"

"Did you just call me 'Thous'?"

"Yea, I spent some time mulling over your name, and 'Thousand Leagues Astrologer' was just too much of a mouthful to say. Could say 'Thousand Leagues', but still a mouthful," he said, shuffling in his seating position with his arms still bound behind him.

"I prefer tomato paste with mashed potato-but that's not the point," she groaned, climbing into the wagon with the others and sitting on the opposite bench from Laurissa. "Listen, I'm not going to be cryptic, so I'll just straight about it. This town will be under siege by nightfall, and frankly we don't have enough people. I doubt even the four of us, of the Slane Theocracy, will be enough. Especially since we'll have to keep you in custody. So, I'll ask you, Garmadon of Australia, vampire slayer and master of the creation spell-."

"And current hostage of a cult."

"-And current hostage of a cu-NO," she snapped at Garmadon who had a slight giggling grin on his face from almost making her say something she'd regret. "Will you help us?"

"….," there was a few moments of silence as the two of them starred into each other's eyes, trying to figure out what the other was thinking.

"You're really laying this on thick, aren't you?" Garmadon heaved before laying back with his eyes closed. "….but I'm going to have to give a hard pass. Fighting on the front lines has never really been my thing. Quite frankly I don't care what happens to this town if I'm not going to get anything out of it."

Creaking open an eye, he glared at her.

"And I'm still against the idea of helping a racist cult on pare with the Nazi's."

"…. _Nazi's?_...W-we can strike a deal."

"But you're not offering anything I want. How about this; let me go and never come after me again after I save this place spec-tacularly."

'This isn't working, he's completely resentful against the Theocracy. There's no point.'

"…. _tfu~…_."

Resentfully, Thousand Leagues got up and stormed out of the wagon and leaned against the halls wall, hat sagging more than usual. She reached into her side pouch and pulled out her personal spell book and started flipping through the pages.

'Surely there's a brainwashing spell in here. Though it would be better if Kaire was here to use [Downfall of Castle and Country]. We'd have a great weapons developer on our side-.'

Before she turned the next page, a hand grabbed hers, snapping Thousand Leagues out of her thoughts. Looking up, Laurissa was staring back with a concerned look in her silent eyes.

"Show him the town," she quietly said, her green eyes glittering amongst her pink hair.

"Pardon?"

"If you want someone to fight, they need to know what they're fighting for," she said, raising her voice with a hint of sadness. "Words alone don't hold enough power to compel someone forward if the meaning of those words is lost to them. How did you become a devoted servant for the great gods, did someone tell you they perform miracles and bless random strangers for no apparent reason? No, you believed because you were blessed with life, a loving family and a great spellcasters magical aptitude by the gods themselves. The miracles you received was the opportunity to fight for that family and life while protecting others like you. That's why you joined and to this day you give your heart to that cause. So don't go thinking you can just simply force someone to fight for a cause and expect them to give their heart for it. Garmadon's no different, so if you want him to fight for our cause, you need to show him what that cause is."

A few moments of silence passed, and Thousand Leagues lightly closed her book and lowered it to her side. "That's the first time you've said more than just a sentence."

"I felt like doing it~," she said, going silent again and turning to the side.

'I feel like something happened~.'

Giving a light smile, Thousand Leagues packed her book away and turned to face Laurissa, taking a deep breath. "Alright, well then shall the three of us do some sight-seeing?"

"Without Halitosis, Harold or Aurita knowing?"

"Oh, they'll be fine," she said, skipping back to the wagon. "Let's go~."

The small Clearwater scripture member gave a slight nod and came along with her.

'Looks like she's back to her normal self.'


	12. Chapter 12

**Bim-bada-Boom, and the next chapter is here! XD**

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

"So where's this restaurant you want to show me?" I asked Thousand Leagues as she, Laurissa and I walked through hustling streets. "Because everyone's either doing a shopping spree like everything's on sale, or actively getting ready for the attack. Either way, doubt stores will be open in a panic."

A while ago, Thousand leagues said that me being cooped up in the back of a wagon wouldn't do my health any good and asked if I wanted to go to a restaurant with her. Laurissa came along too, but sadly I still had to wear my zero-point shackles. So, to the other people around us, I looked like a convict who was being escorted through the streets.

They mentioned their team and someone named Aurita. Turns out she was another member of the Slane Theocracy sent out on a separate mission to Thousand League Astrologer and the ones who brainwashed Shalltear.

Around us, civilians and groups of soldiers with upturned buckets on their heads marched by. 'Ooohhh yyeaa~, their the magic casters from episode four in the anime. Totally forgot they were Slane Theocracy soldiers.'

There were numerous people piling up wooden trailers pulled by horses with crates and furniture on board, or boarding up their houses to bunker down for the oncoming assault. Others who were fashioning weapons from left over wood and anything they could get their hands on, and I do mean _anything._

It felt like foreveerrr, and still no restaurant. Instead I was amazed by how much this place looked like something out of my school history books. What with all the medieval armoured soldiers around and families either getting ready to evacuate or brace for it.

"Well this is a surprise," someone said from behind. "Garmadon Edward, walking through the streets with a par of gals on either side."

At the mention of my alias, I snapped round and standing before me, with arms inflated by muscles, a straw hat atop his head and a cheesy grin was someone I didn't think I'd run into again.

"Oh I remember you…..uh, Pea-tear-."

"Peter."

"Yea-he-heaaa, Peter. Yea, I haven't seen you since that griffon incident, how's things been?" I greeted, waving my left arm while giving a minor smile.

'I completely forgot his name.'

"Ah, we haven't been up to that much. After the house burnt down, we didn't have many options, so where here staying with Samantha's mother till we get back on our feet," his grin turned down for a bit as his expression went grim. "But fate's not that kind, this place's gonna go under by nightfall."

"Yeah, I've heared about that. Get this, the opposing forces are actually woodland creatures, possibly a few monsters in the mix."

Peter was confused by my statement. "Are you sure that's not from some absurd rumour? I heard it was an army of magic casters from another country using [summons]. I mean seriously, animals orchestrating an attack-."

"I'm sorry, but I appear to be missing something here," Thousand Leagues voiced. "Just how do you two know each other? No one in the Slane Theocracy should know of Garmadons existence yet."

Peter's smile returned to his face as a way of greeting her which curled into a slight grin of silent laughter. "Well good evening miss, I hadn't known Garmadon got himself a girlfriend."

Thousand Leagues looked stunned for moment before returning with anger in her face. "He and I are not a thing," she snapped, grabbing my arm and showing Peter my cuff. "If you can see, Garmadon here's under restraint by order of the cardinals, and I am no 'miss'. I'm a high-ranking magic caster of the Slane Theocracies _military,_ Thousand Leagues Astrologer!"

"M-my apologies miss-I'm mean Thousand Leagues Astrologer," Peter bowed sightly. "I wasn't aware you were on official holy business."

Thousand leagues _probably_ shouldn't have introduced herself like that with the Black Scripture being all 'black ops' and what not for the cardinals. But since she never said what division she's with, I guess it's okay.

"At least you know your folly. Now please answer the question, how do you know him?"

In the Slane Theocracy, any orders given by the cardinals are taken as the literal will of the gods and their decree. So it's common sense if you go against soldiers of the Cardinals or the cardinals themselves, you're going against their six gods.

Peter rose to his feet with a smile back on his face, but it felt like the emotions he was presenting weren't completely genuine. "Of course. Earlier this week, my family and I were attacked by a griffon at our farm and were nearly killed. I lost my arm defending my wife and child…," he said, rubbing his left arm as though it were saw.

'Hold on, does that mean I wondered into the Theocracy on my first day and then popped into the Re-Estize kingdom after?'

"..Garmadon here then came across and saved us all. I don't know all the details, I was unconscious, but he managed to regrow my arm and heal my wife after killing the beast."

"Did he use potions?"

"Don't thin-no, he didn't."

"Is that so?" Thousand Leagues mused, turning to face me. "So, you're not only capable of at least 3rd tier creation magic, but you can also use divine type healing magic. When we get the chance, I'm asking you a whole heap more of questions. Have anything to say?"

If I remember correctly, third tier magic isn't something anyone can have. Casters with that power might as well be platinum-rank adventures, at least, while divine magic composes of healing and restoration.

'Man that's a laugh, I managed to beat a pair of guardians 1-on-1 and you think those are my only attributes? Just give me my shard and I'll create a black hole for this world to study…..can I even do that?'

"Ieee….don't deny that's how Peter and I met, nor is that the least I can do. But to be fair, you never asked me about my capabilities. So it's your own fault."

"Don't think I'm not going to make that same mistake again."

"Hehehe, ahh. The more you guys bicker, the less I believe your claim you're not boyfriend and girlfriend," Peter chuckled with a grin back on his face that felt genuine. Before Thousand Leagues could chew him out again, he quickly changed the topic. "So who's the little one in armour."

Gesturing behind us, Laurissa was kneeling low while stroking a small fox-like creature with long, bloody orange fur and splodges of white at the ends of its long ears and tail. It seemed to be enjoying the petting, sitting with eyes closed and lightly purring.

"That's Laurissa Eshavalia, clear water scripture member," Thousand leagues said. "What'cha got there Laurissa?"

"Something cute," she mumbled.

"Okay, so she doesn't know what that is," Thousand leagues said, worriedly.

"But isn't that like a pet from around here, like a cat?" I asked, kneeling next to Laurissa to pet the animal as well.

"If that's a pet, it's not one I've seen before," Peter spoke up.

Reaching out my left hand, the fox's ears twitched and eyes snapped open at me with sky blue cat eyes. For some reason the stare froze me for a-bit, an eerie feeling creeping into my heart. Those beautiful blue eyes peered deep into my soul.

The fox seemed to take no notice of this and darted away from us to scamper up the brick wall of a nearby house before disappearing over the edge of the roof.

'That was weird. For a moment there it felt like, I'd met that thing before,' I thought, starring after it.

"Well it's gone now, no point crying over spilt milk," Thousand Leagues said, shaking me out of my thoughts. "Err….Peter…..as I understand it you're acquainted with the geography of this town, aren't you?"

"He-yea, I wouldn't say _well acquainted_ after three days here, but I guess I know my way around this place a fair bit."

"Can you help us? We're looking for an open pub or restaurant for a quick drink and we're having trouble finding one open."

"Haha, it shouldn't be that surprising!" Peter bellowed before looking around. "This place is more-or-less a soon-to-be war zone and people are scampering around arming themselves on account of being scared out of their wits. You should get going yourselves if you don't want to get swept up in the upcoming chaos."

"Actually….," Thousand Leagues skipped to Peters side so they're shoulder-to-shoulder, or elbow-to-shoulder, with their backs turned. I couldn't hear what they were saying but before they finished, Peters face looked shocked before returning into the conversation.

"Now that you mention it," Peter said, the secret conversation more than likely over. "I saw a couple of guys not giving a real dam about the attack announcement and bellowed they would drink at 'Quill saloon' on the East side of town. It's got good drinks but it has a reputation of being a 'holler'."

"What do you mean by 'holler'?" I asked

"Trust me heahea, that answer will show itself when you get there," he giggled.

'….Guess humans act crazy when they know their worlds going to end no matter where you go…'

Peter gave us the directions and we were about to head off, but before we got a chance Peter grabbed me for a moment.

"One more thing, I want to say thanks again for saving us. I didn't say this earlier, but Hannah spent two days straight praying to the gods as thanks for sending a hero to save us. See ya."

"N-no problem, you have a good one."

Now having a clear destination in mind, we made our way through streets with people still either running about or fashioning weapons. I even saw groups of citizens on their knees praying outside houses on carpets.

'Hero hu, I don't deserve that title. The real hero in this story is Ainz Ooal Gown, I'm just a bystander who stumbled on stage…. Oh shit I just realized something! If this is an anime world and the product of someone's creativity from my own as Vosdulite says, then doesn't that mean this is viewable? I know me my presence here _is_ to change the religious system, but the Theocracy's religion is based on a concrete event in history. Surely the writers must've had a reason to appoint six Slane Theocracy gods, and if I were to change that religion the whole plot of this story could be thrown out of whack! Oooh man, I should have never voiced to take Shalltear on, or even interact with Ainz, this whole anime's going to go to hell if I don't set things back to the way they were. Vosdulite also said there was another person here, so they're probably doing their job properly. But I can't do anything while I'm powerless,' I panicked, grabbing my right arm and giving it a jiggle, the mechanical fingers still clinked about lifelessly. The insignia in the palm didn't look so bad as last time, the crack had somehow fixed itself and was now barley a nick on the side.

'Fuck'n twenty-four-hour time limit.'

* * *

 **Interlude: Slane Theocracy**

A while passed after their encounter with the former farmer Peter, and while looking for the 'Quill Saloon' Thousand Leagues Astrologers mind was mulling over the conversation they just had and the relationship he and Garmadon both had. All the while, a faint sound of music had been growing louder and louder

"This is most certainly an improved state of development," Thousand Leagues murmured under her breath while looking to the ground. Her shadow stretched long in front of her so she could easily tell it was evening. "Not only has Garmadon crossed our boarders before without us knowing, but he also rescued a family. This could be useful leverage in the foreseeable future."

Turning to face him, Garmadon had a look of panic on his face while looking at his right hand which still hung lifeless. 'What is with that thing anyway?'

"What'cha thinking about?" her blunt question snapped him out of his train of thought as his focus shifted to her.

"Oh-oh I'm good," he stuttered, letting the arm hang slack by his side. "Just having an internal struggle."

'An internal struggle? Could it be his conscience nagging at him?' Thousand Leagues grinned greatly internally while trying desperately not to show it on the surface. 'Way to go Laurissa, if I'd known your idea was going to turn out like this I would've never sought to using force.'

"Having second thoughts on not helping us save this town?" she asked in a sarcastic tone with a smile, but that only made Garmadon glare at her with contempt, his right eye glowing dully.

"If you think a simple blast from the past will change my mind, you're deadly mistaken," he hissed with venom in his voice, but at the same time his lips were trembling. For all his negative talk he had a worried expression.

'This kid's got walls built around him,' as Thousand Leagues was making that mental note, they came to a fork in the road and a green blur came flying out of nowhere. It rammed straight into the left side of Garmadons temple and shattered to pieces on impact.

 _TSHHchuAA!_

"DARRRRGHHH!" he screamed in pain, hunching over while holding his head with both hands.

Both girls were taken off guard by the sudden surprise attack and knelt down with him.

"Are you alright ,Garmadon?" she panicked, moving her hands closer to his own where the wound was.

"F'ckin no, it feels like I got hit by a base-ball bat!" he cried, his eyes squinting. A slight trickle of blood ran out from between his flesh and metal fingers and down the side of his head. "What the hell was that?!"

Thousand leagues was confused for a moment, the term 'base-ball bat' didn't hold any meaning to her, so she chocked it up as something from Garmadons' country.

"Wine bottle," Laurissa monotoned, while holding a piece of broken glass. A slightly-torn white label hung from it with pictures of grapes and the words 'blood grape' written below.

A concerned look was visible on Laurissas' face, normally she'd be able to sense oncoming attacks but she couldn't sense this one. Maybe because it didn't have any bloodlust behind it.

"….Hehe.. _tffff_ …guess we found our taven," Garmadon tried to joke while giving another wince.

From the direction the bottle had hurled from stood a building with double doors up a short flight of stairs hanging high above the floor on hinges. Above the balcony with upturned tables enclosed by a polished wooden railing hung a sign reading 'Quill Saloon'. The building itself was shacking from thumping within to the beat of music being played.

"Glad to see your sense of humour hasn't shattered," Thousand Leagues remarked, positioning her hands on either side of his head. "[Minor healing light]."

A pair of green circles in one another appeared around Garmadons head while his head glowed green as well. She did have healing potions for scenarios like this, but it's best to save them for another day. A few moments passed, and soft bone cracking sounded from his skull.

"There, that should do it," she remarked, the circles vanishing, and Thousand Leagues removed her hands. With slightly ragged breaths, Garmadon lowered his own hands and-

'His hands!'

"G-Garmadon your arm, i-it's not hanging limp anymore," she stuttered in surprise.

'What's going on here? He shouldn't be able to move his arm while wearing the [zero point shackles], his magic should be cut off!'

Garmadons own eyes widened in surprise at the development before holding his right arm in front of him once again but giving it a flick. The arm itself clicked together softly as his fingers flexed and his hand twisted on a disk below the wrist.

"Well so it has….," he faintly said. Suddenly he sprung back, spun on his heel and a pair of sticks practically grew from thin air in both hands from a flurry of brown sparks before stopping with a stomp.

Before they knew it, Thousand Leagues and Laurissa were staring down a pair of dark-grey barrels, each welded onto dark wood while held by Garmadon. His demeanour to that of something threatening while his eye glowed dimly.

"Now don't move an inch or I'll blow a hole in both your heads," he threated, the sticks were still trained to their heads.

"[Stride of wind]" Laurissa spoke under her breath-.

 _BOOM!_

"NeeARRGHHH!" a piercing screech erupted from the girl's mouth as she fell to the ground and gripped her leg as it became a dark crimson with blood leaking onto the ground.

Thousand Leagues ears were sharply ringing while she tried to regain her bearings on what just happened. To her, there was a sudden burst of fire from the end of one of the sticks followed by highly condensed explosion magic sounding off, and now Laurissa is lying on the ground with a few holes in her leg and leg armour.

"Laurissa!" Thousand Leagues shrieked dropping to her knees beside the girls bleeding body, taking out a blue potion from her side bag and emptying the contents down her mouth. After taking in the liquid, Laurissa's leg glowed faintly blue as the wound closed itself up.

'How did he know, I could barely hear Laurissa chant her martial art, so how could he?!'

As she tried to understand why, the smoking end of the weapon went back to being pointed at Laurissa while the other was still trained on Thousand Leagues.

"I said don't move, you only have yourself to blame, Laurissa."

"How?" Thousand Leagues asked, slowly helping Laurissa to her feet. "How are you able to cast creation magic while wearing zero-point shackles?"

Onlookers stopped by to look at the events unfold before them. Garmadon noticed this and fired the weapon he had on Thousand Leagues twice into the air and yelling at them to get lost before tossing it aside and creating a replacement. The discarded weapon broke apart into small blue cubes which broke down into more cubes until disappearing.

"I thought about what you said last night," he said, shifting his grip on the weapons. His right eye began glowing purple dully. "You said these shackles negate magic, but I thought that would be next to impossible for lowly magic users of the Slane Theocracy. So, when I had a chance I used my eye and took a look at the restraints-."

* * *

 **Interlude: Garmadon**

'In truth I just based my hypothesis on what Naberal said before she blew up those Skeletal dragons in the anime. But they don't need to no that, though I do feel somewhat….upset about insulting their kingdom again like this. Guess I still have a conscience.'

* * *

 **Interlude: Slane Theocracy**

"You dare insult out kingdom again. Just what do hold so high above that that makes you so willing to insult others and gloat about that freaky eye of yours? What does it even do?" Thousand Leagues cringed in anger while her legs were shacking on the spot. The weapon he held spat fire like a dragon and roared just as loud as one, why wouldn't she be scared?

"Haven't I told you? This beauty is able to perceive the passage of time, space and the very atoms themselves. To put it in terms you can understand, I can pear into the depths of reality and see everything that cannot be seen," he grinned, obviously taking pride in explaining his eye. "Now as I was about to say before I was in-ter-rup-ted. I saw that the magic these shackles emit don't negate other magic, it prevents the activation of tier magic that's weaker than the restraints themselves. They're like a dam hold back a river, though my magic was too strong of a current for it."

'Wha-So did he know Laurissa was using martial arts because he saw it activate within her, and does this kid know more about those restraints than we do?'

"If that's true, what kind of tier magic are you capable of casting?"

"That's confidential, so let's focus on the now shall we? I have you both at shot-gun point and I intend to make demands before I leave-."

"You're planning on leaving Garmadon?" Laurissa practically yelped, surprising them both. Clearly she'd regained her energy after been shot point blank. "But I thought you'd change your mind if you got an understanding of what we're fighting for. I didn't think you'd be so selfish."

Garmadon gazed at her as she got back to her feet for a few moments before responding. "Laurissa, I'm sorry, I really am. But this isn't a selfish decision on my part. For this anim-world, it's best I leave and you forget ever meeting me. I can't give you the details yet, but there is something I must do, and someone I must confront, to set things right."

'I was right, something really did happen between these two when I wasn't watching….,' Thousand League realized.

"This _thing_ you need to do must be really important if you're willing to talk to us about demands instead of running off first," Thousand Leagues pointed out.

"You have no idea~," he monotoned.

"…"

"…."

"…."

"…."

"Alright," Thousand Leagues admitted, closing her eyes after Laurissa snapped a surprised look in her direction. "But before you go, care to have a drink? We've come all this way, and it'll be on me of course."

There were a few more moments of silence as Garmadon was gazing slightly towards the tavern, considering the invite. "One drink," he said, lowering the weapons. "One drink, and then I'm gone."

"That's good enough."

'I can't believe I just said that!' Thousand Leagues screeched internally. 'Calm down calm down, I've still got [phantom shackles] cast on him and linked to me. So even if he makes another bolt for it he should come right back-.'

Garmadons' eye was still glowing dully as it occasionally flicked to his arms every now and again.

'…unless he knows about that spell and has already broken it~."

As they ascended the stairs, the music being played inside was a mix of flutes, drums and violins at a frantic and exciting pace with a gripping feeling. Beyond the doors was a massive hoard of partying drinkers, acting as if it were the end of the world.

The room was massive, about half the size of a barn shed but much cleaner. Most tables and chairs were still standing while others had been flipped by people attempting to dance to the music but looked more like wet rags flapping in strong winds.

Up the back, next to the counter with waitresses and a buff guy behind frantically serving customers who chatted amongst themselves as though old friends, was a stage. Atop sung a girl in a green dress with a light brown vest and blonde curly hair stretching down to her elbows. She looked like she was in her middles 20's.

"…This world, filled with false realities and truths, can you look beyond the lies and see the truth? …In a world that's just too small, can we truly see it all? Are these limits just the fantasies that we recall, Is it true?..."

'So this is what Peter meant when he said this place was a 'hollar'.'

Garmadon seemed transfixed with the music, but a light tap on the shoulder dragged him right back into reality. Preferring to not be soaked in by the happy crowd just yet they took seats near the entrance of the saloon away from the crowd that were miraculously untouched.

"Well this is quite something," Thousand Leagues practically yelled over the hollering crowd while looking around. "Got any preferences?"

The other two took a bit of thought on the matter.

"I'll have Halbrim beer."

"Would this place happen to have any carbonated drinks?"

The request made both girls look at him as though he'd gone a little mental.

"What's a 'carbonated drink'?" Thousand Leagues asked.

"Y-you know, carbonated drinks. Soda, lemonade… fizzy dinks," he stuttered with a slightly anxious look.

"Oh, you must mean champagne….doubt we'll find any here, you know for being a whole nobles drink and all," she said with a hint of suspicion.

"Acctualey…..Yes, yes that's what I meant, haha," he blankly laughed. "I got my words mixed up then, haha….. I'd like something light."

'This kid never makes any real sense, he just keeps piling up more questions,' Thousand Leagues thought, rubbing her forehead in irritation.

"Alright then, be right back," she replied getting back up. She crossed her arms over her chest as though she were about to take a leap of faith. "[Levitate]."

Her body rose slowly off the ground while wobbling as she tried to gain some balance in in the air.

The spell [Levitation] is mainly used on other objects to make them float, it makes for easy transportation with flight direction controlled by magic. The spell operates like the spell [fly], but it's altitude is greatly lesser than that spell and doesn't consume as much magic as a result.

The downside to it though, is that the affected objects' original centre of gravity plays a part in it. If it's too far to one side, the whole thing flips in that direction.

* * *

 **Interlude: Garmadon**

With my eye active, I saw that Thousand Leagues had been enclosed in a vail of transparent purple light with countless loops around her, circling from above to underneath. I tried to ignore the dark purple chains snacking from Thousand Leagues to me since I knew they were the [phantom restraints] from last night.

'Oh wow, even flight magic looks like it invokes the principles of common science. She's like a planet with her own magnetic field,' I thought, one side of the ring of circles bulged out and Thousand Leagues was propelled in the opposite direction. 'This raises some questions in _that_ field of science.'

* * *

 **Interlude: Slane Theocracy**

The crowd below her was livelier from above than it did from the back. Most were certainly swaying to the music, but others were brawling it out in tight rings in the sea of people. She couldn't see them before from the people blocking her view, but a few even had girls against guys, and they were winning.

Thousand Leagues chuckled slightly as a slender girl hurled a big guy, twice her size, over her shoulder by using his own height against him before pinning him down. Many people outside the ring roared in celebration as she twisted his arm around his back into a dead lock position causing him to pound the ground with his remaining limbs while yelling out 'I give, I give!'

"Are you okay up there?" came a voice from below her.

Before she knew it, Thousand Leagues was now hovering above the counter. An elder teen waitress with short-cut grey hair tied back into a bun was looking up at her mid-serve of another customer.

"Argh- Yes, I'm alright," she responded, slowly descending onto a vacant stool by the counter before deactivating her [levitation] magic. "Could I get three mugs of Halbrim beer and a bottle of something that'll make you sober up quickly."

"Got it," she replied, handing a pair of mugs to a pair of cackling drunks. "Three mugs of Halbrim and a bottle of Voltig coming right up."

In their country, Halbrim beer isn't popular for being an extremely heavy drink. But being alcohol, too much could still make you dizzy. Voltig was, however, a well-known soberer beverage founded in the Slane Theocracy.

Mainly because the main ingredient's a flower that only grows in their region called a dandelion. After being laced with magic, the flower on its own can wake up even a hibernating dragon after a single whiff.

" _Cough, cough_ ….bear is weird," someone said to her right. "Excuse me, are you sure you don't have any carbonated drinks. You know, soda…He~lloo~."

'Carbonated….soda?'

At the mention of the words Thousand Leagues snapped at the source to see a young boy sitting next to her, a few years younger than she was. Had short dirty blonde hair and wore a dark green cloak with patches of even darker green, some were near black. In his right he held a mug of beer with a foaming top while the other was waving about trying to get the attention of one of the waitresses to no avail.

"Excuse me kid, but were you just asking for carbonated drinks," Thousand Leagues asked.

'A boy in blonde hair and dawned in a dark green cloak,' she thought while watching the boy. 'It couldn't be the boy Aurita was talking about, could he? I mean he doesn't have an unusual fox by his side.'

"Hnn, do you have any?"

"Well…no-."

"Then we have nothing to talk about," the boy answered, turning back to his drink to take another swig before cringing and forcing himself to swallow it. " _Blugh…_ "

'Knows carbonated drinks, doesn't look like he likes liquors at all and has a slight attitude problem. This feels familiar.'

"I'm trying to ask where you learnt that word," Thousand Leagues pushed. "I know someone else who expresses knowledge in that topic and I'm wondering if two are from the same place or something."

"Knows about carbonated drinks…..," he murmured, laying his drink down and turning to face her. "Would this person happen to be a little older than me, blonde hair, stubborn attitude and wouldn't hesitate to hurt everyone within a 10 meter radius if pressed into a situation he doesn't want?"

The fox like creature with blood orange fur from earlier popped on the counter behind the boy and gripped the rim with its tiny paws before licking the mug's contents. In a matter of moments, it too began cringing before coughing the contents back into the mug. Meanwhile, the music being played had begun dying down

'Gross- THE FOX LIKE CREATURE FROM EARLIER?!' she internally yelled. 'Calm down- calm down, I should keep an eye on this kid, I have no _real_ evidence anyway.'

"Yes, and to some extent with the whole 'everyone within a 10-meter radius' thing. It's more to everyone within the nearby vicinity," she responded, thinking about what happened outside.

Suddenly he jumped up and gripped the sides of Thousand Leagues shoulders and starred into her eyes. "Where is he, and what's his name?!"

"H-his names Garma-."

"-Garmadon," he interrupted. At this point, the music had come to an end and the blonde girl on stage was now leaving.

"Ye-t-that's right."

When Thousand Leagues responded, the boys grip on her loosened and had a hopeful expression on his face with a twitching smirk. "…there's a cha-ha-ha-nce….."

Before she could ask any further, a hand belonging to the girl from up on stage grasped the boys shoulder out from the wall of people around them.

"Alright Alex, it's your turn," she said with a smile, handing him a guitar. Alex released Thousand Leagues to take it graciously. "Knock 'em flat."

In a moment's notice, the boy's face, now known as Alex, snapped from being hopeful to being excited. "Oh, I intend to," he responded turning back to Thousand Leagues, the fox-like creature climbed his back to his shoulder. "Where abouts are you guys sitting?"

"At the back of the tavern near the doorway," she said, gesturing through the thick mass of the crowd. "If you're asking that then I expect you to answer some questions I have about him, and this 'Australia' place he's from."

Alex's smile grew into a grin with a giggle behind it. "Then I'm totally coming over. If it's who I think it is, this world's gonna change~."

Before Thousand Leagues could ask Alex what he meant, a trio of mugs followed by a tall slender glass bottle filled with green liquid and a small dandelion submerged inside landed right next to her on the counter.

"That'll be eight copper coins."

After paying the bill, Thousand Leagues turned to where the boy was before but he'd disappeared into the crowds. Giving a quick survey of the area, she saw him climbing the stairs to the stage with the fox still on his shoulder and the guitar in his hands.

'Guess the answers I'm wanting will have to wait. If my hunch is correct that this kid is from Australia, we might be hearing some pretty interesting music.'

Thousand Leagues turned back to the drinks in front of her and cast [levitation] on all five objects, including herself and flew back over to the rear table. Upon which, Garmadon and Laurissa were playing with a small black rectangle box that had been flipped open. Landing back in her chair, Thousand Leagues set the mugs and bottle down on the table before asking what she'd missed.

Apparently, Garmadon and Laurissa got chatting again, getting over the whole stick-up from outside and started playing games with some magical device Garmadon called a '3DS'. He'd created it using magic and dabbed a drop of blood on it.

"By the way, I found someone who wants to talk to you," Thousand Leagues said, the others took a swig from their mugs. "I think his name was Alex-."

"-BLUUTTTHHHH!"

Suddenly, Garmadon spayed the entire contents of what he drank at great speed in a random direction, you'd think his insides were under extreme pressure.

"Garmadon!" Thousand Leagues blurted out. "That's a waste of good alcohol!"

That was somewhat of a lie.

"Wha- _cough-_ what the hell did you just say his name was?"

"I said his name was Alex, goodness. He's up there if you want to see what he looks like," while putting down her own drink, Thousand Leagues pointed towards to the stage at the boy she had spoken to earlier who was now playing his guitar on. He was plucking the stings at a fast pace while drums were thumping away in sink.

"There's no e'fin way~," Garmadon half chuckled as a smile trembled into his. Suddenly the guitars noise became the dominate instrument out of the others and practically vibrated through the air.

" _Oh it's been getting so hard,  
Living with the things you do to me.."  
_

 _Thump!_

A fist the size of the mugs hammered down onto the table, surprising the trio. Looking up was a big guy towering over 7ft with a bulging belly and thick arms stretching his white shirt with a brown vest on. He had short cut hair, near bald, and an angry scowl on his face which glared down at Garmadon.

"Are you the one that sprayed me…. _hick_?" he demanded in a slurred gruff voice. He was obviously drunk, and reeked of it to. Looking down, they all saw a wet patch on the left side of his shirt which seeped down his leg to his ankle.

" _..Oh, I see a man at the back as a matter of fact  
His eyes are as red as the sun,-"  
_

"… _gulp…_ yes….," he vaguely said. That seemed to set the guy off as he drew his fist ready to strike. In the corner of her eye, Thousand Leagues saw Laurissa going for her swords but managed to stop her by leaping across the table and gripping her shoulders.

" _And the girl in the corner let no one ignore her  
Cause she thinks she's the passionate one…."_

* * *

 **Interlude: Garmadon**

'In terms of brute strength, this guy can squash me like a grape since I'm missing my own strength-,' having pulled it back far enough, the drunk hurled his fist at me. '-but strength doesn't win every battle.'

Engaging my eye, his movements slowed down to a perceivable speed. I moved out of the fists path, but with my reflex speed reduced it just grazed me.

" _Oh yeah! It was like lightning-,"_

In the moment when his balance was off, I gripped his right arm with mine while I pushed my left onto his thigh and hefted him up over my shoulder.

 _"Everybody was fighting-"_

He landed with a thump and I negated my eye. Suddenly before I knew it, Laurissa had pushed Thousand Leagues off, ran at me before leaping by me.

 _"And the music was soothing,  
And they all started groo~ving,"_

* * *

 **Interlude: Slane Theocracy**

When Garmadon flipped the drunk onto his back he ended up smashing some mugs underneath, right next to their drinkers. They looked surprised for a split moment before their faces contorted into anger and readied for a brawl of their own. Garmadon hadn't noticed it yet.

Suddenly, Laurissa force into Thousand Leagues, shoving her off, climb the table and leaped past Garmaodn and kneed an attacker in the face.

"Barrgh!"

 _Smash!_

" _Yeah~, yeah~, yeah-yeah-yeah-"_

* * *

 **Interlude: Garmadon**

Snapping round, Laurissa had landed a foot into the face of another drunk who was now on the floor amongst broken glass and wood. I concluded they landed on a table with drinks on it, because onlookers on stools surrounding them were in shock before their faces to turned intoanger and faced the both of us.

" _And the man in the back said everyone attack  
And it turned into a ballroom blitz-"_

Suddenly they all charged at us with fists clenched and hatred in their eyes.

"Geez, I need my eye for this one," I yelped, reactivating my eye and materializing a cylinder with a pin in the top which I plucked out and through at their feet.

 _"And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you  
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz-,"_

 _Foo-kchchcchhhh~!_

A ploom of smoke exploded from the canister while materializing a pair of wooden bats in each hand. At that time the smoke began pixelating as being a product of my creation and wasn't in contact with me. Well that was the case before I leaped into the smoke.

 _"Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz,"_

Drunks came at me from left and right, but with my eye I was able to see through the smoke with x-ray vision and I could see everybody's movements in slow-motion. Swinging to my right, I thwacked one in the stomach, making him keel over to catch his breath before following it up hitting him in the back to the ground with my left.

" _Oh reaching out for something,  
Touching nothing's all I ever do-,"_

In the momentum I raised my right bat, I rammed into another's jaw. Suddenly I was grappled from behind, forced to drop the bats and lifted up above my attackers' head before slammed on to the ground face first.

" _Oh I softly call you over,  
When you appear there's nothing left of you-,"_

The impact hurt like hell and peeking behind, a fist gripping a broken mug to act as brace knuckles on it was slowly coming at me. It was perceivable so I moved, but my speed was still slow without my shard so it collided into my nose, practically chattering it on impact.

" _And the man in the back is ready to crack  
As he raises his hands to the sky-,"_

"GLuurGGhh!" I wailed, gripping my bloody nose in both hands as the guy picked my back up and was held aloft with one hand.

" _And the girl in the corner is everyone's woman  
She could kill you with a wink of her eye~,"_

I took this moment to materialize a hammer in my right hand and struck it into his head. The impact shattered his skull and caved in as the weapon lodged itself amongst his brains and bone.

" _Oh yeah! It was electric  
So perfectly hectic-,"_

'SHIT!-I didn't mean to kill the poor bastard,' I panicked internally as I tried to wiggle the hammer out, but left it to dematerialize on account as to how stuck it was by the skull fragments.

" _And the band started leaving  
'Cause they all stopped breathing."_

"RarrghHH!" someone suddenly came charging out of the smoke that still lingered and tackled the one I was still held by, despite the fact at being kinda…..dead. The tackler toppled the two of us to the ground and in the moment of a one-sided fight between the two, I pried the finger off my coat.

" _Oh yeah! It was like lightning  
Everybody was fighting  
And the music was soothing  
And they all started grooving"_

The smoke had cleared up a fair bit by now as I got back up still holding my bloodied nose, looking around the whole place had gone to chaos in a matter of seconds. Chairs and tables were flying everywhere, I even saw someone soaring over the crowd wailing in panic before heading straight for Alex on stage.

" _Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-."_

 _Fli-thwack!_

In a split second, Alex spun around on one foot and used the other to karate kick the flying soul square in the face. He landed onto the floor with a deep _thump._

 _And the man in the back said everyone attack, And it turned into a ballroom blitz-,"_

Someone then grabbed my left arm and gave me a yank. I was about to retaliate with another materialized hammer in hand, but stopped at the familiar pink haired girl before me.

" _And the girl in the corner said boy I want to warn you,  
It'll turn into a ballroom blitz,"_

"We're leaving," she said, someone had noticed us and was about to land a blow. Before I could even warn her, Laurissa had karate chopped him in the throat, kicked him in the balls, slumping his knees, before sucker punching him in the forehead. As he fell to the ground, I noticed she was still holding my arm, and I my hammer in a striking stance.

"Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz."

'Dam, she's better than I thought.'

" _Oh reaching out for something,  
Touching nothing's all I ever do,"_

Dropping the hammer to dematerialize and negating my eye, Laurissa lead my through the crowd to the doors outside. There, standing for us was Thousand Leagues Astrologer with her arms crossed and a more than slightly disappointed scowl on her face.

"Let me guess," I joked, skipping down the stairs with Laurissa still practically dragging me to stand in front of her. "I shouldn't have lashed out at-."

"GarrGGHH!"

To my surprise, Thousand Leagues leaped out at me with hands outstretched and gripped my neck, shoving me to the ground. For a mage, she was pretty strong.

"You 'lashing out' isn't the issue here. It's the fact you committed murder in a public bar!" she screamed at my face while literally choking me.

"tujjchts narrgh te isshue hea, guuurrgh…..(that's not the issue here)" I croaked, my eyes hurt from feeling like they'd pop out of my head. Sitting down and rolling over onto my back I planted my feet under her stomach and shoved her over my head before sitting up and trying to regain my breath. "Gaaarghh-hooo…"

"Why do you fight Garmadon, and why did you fight that vampire?" Thousand Leagues pestered behind. The questions stunned me, turning round she was still lying on the ground from where I flipped her.

"What's with those questions?" I asked bluntly.

'This is the first time she's even remotely gone to those topics. And wasn't she just ringing my neck out like Christmas turkey not TWO seconds ago.'

".. _sigh.._ I was supposed to ask you last night," she began, sitting up as well before turning round and going cross-legged. "But I was afraid the sudden questioning of your motivations, would've led to you distrusting us further than you already were. Though this has gone on long enough, and since you just killed someone, I believe this is a more than appropriate time to know what … makes … you … tick."

There was a little wait while I collected my thoughts on the matter. '..fuck'n…. I can't tell her. I can't tell her that I agreed with a being who's stronger than their gods to take on Shalltear. So what can I tell her that won't upset the balance of this world for the viewers any further?...screw it.'

"I… You're…not…real."

Thousand Leagues looked confused a bit while blinking her eyes at my sudden statement. "Wha-what did you say?"

"I said…you're not real. _NONE_ of this is real," I yelped, getting up and gesturing to everything around us. "You're very existence is based off another's imagination, hell they probably didn't give that much original thought into your backstory. It's the same as any other typical character with humility in them."

While I ranted on, Thousand Leagues did nothing but sit there with eyes fully widened. Laurissa was no different.

"But that makes sense I guess, you're not the main character of this story-."

"You rant on like a madman!" she yelled back, getting off the ground to try and match my height but was just below eye level. "I asked for your motivation, this world is not fictional. It was created by the six great gods who chose humanity to be the dominant race and not by mortals like us."

"Oh I beg-to-differ, and do you know why? It's because I'm from the same dimension that created yours."

"You lie!"

"Oh contra, your world was created for the entertainment of mine and the majority of the Slane Theocracy's secrets. Like so, do you know what happened to the Shaman Princess's Crown of Wisdom?"

Thousand Leagues was stunned when I mentioned the Crown of Wisdom. "Tha-the theft of the Crown of Wisdom shouldn't be public knowledge. The Cardinals would have never released that information without consulting the Black Scripture first…"

"I never said it was stolen, but we both know who did the stealing now don't we?"

"Clemen-."

"-Clementime, yes. I know because I saw her twirling it around her fingers before she gave it to Zurrernorn."

A flicker of anger streaked across her face. "So do you know where she and the crown are right now? She must be apprehended because her crimes-."

"Oh she's dead. Literally bear hugged to death by the main character of this story. Turned the crown to dust while he was at it."

"And he's-."

"Ainz Ooal mother frigg'n Gown. Just without the 'mother frigg'n."

There was a bit of disbelief in their faces. Understandable, but I'm feeling _sooo~_ tempted to lord this anime's secrets in front of them. However..

"But that's all I'm going to say, I've already divulged to much information," I said while holding my hand in front of her, trying to breathe through my nose but got some pain in doing so and pinching my ridge in irritation with my metal fingers.

'Snap, I just remembered what happened to my nose.'

"The only thing you should be concerned with is that I'm real, you're not, me and that boy inside shouldn't be in this dimension and my motivation is to get the hell outta here before I cause any more damage to this story's build!" I yelled gesturing to the sky and pointing at the tavern. "I also believe the whole reason why I'm here is a load of bull!"

There was an unprecedented amount of shock and fear in Thousand leagues expression. Her curved down lips trembled as I panted from my ranting. "You-You're insane. Just what did Australia teach you when you grew up?"

I rested my face in my left hand at the response of the girl in front of me my nose throbbing but not hurting as much anymore. 'I don't have time for this,' I thought while sliding my hand down my face in frustration. 'I gotta get out of her and take Alex with me~.'

"I don't blame you for not believing him right out. Doubt anybody would if they knew him the way I did," someone spoke up.

We all faced the tavern where the voice came from to see the boy from stage standing on top of the stairs dawned in a camou cloak with the fox creature we saw earlier perched on his shoulder scratching its ear.

"A few years back, he none stopped lied to get out of troubling situations," he slowly walked down the stairs. "But he always laughed hysterically whenever he did."

"That's only when I thought the lies themselves were funny, Alex, and my subconscious thought so too until I got a handle of properly lying," I smiled while a swirl of joy swelled up deep within me as Alex reached the bottom.

"Great," Thousand Leagues sarcastically yelped. "Just what we need. Now that you're here as well, someone _please_ tell me what your relationship is with each other here."

"…He's my brother~," I half laughed and cried internally. "And I couldn't be happier to see him right now~hehe~." Alex seemed to be doing the same before we both broke out into a run at each other and collided into a hug. "Haha, what the hell are you even doing here~?"

"What she didn't tell you~ _sniff_ ~?" Alex asked pulling back with a smile still on his face after whipping his nose with his thumb. "Nur…. I'm the second party that Vosdulite sent to this world on account of it having so little belief in Christ."

'WHAT?! He's the other person-.'

"You're the other one Vosdulite sent? You're not as insightful about this anime compared to …. literally any other anime fan, so what gives?"

"She really didn't tell you anything, did she?" he asked looking at me concerned mixed with lingering happiness. "The knowledge of this anime, Christianity and your resources is why you're here, but I'm here because I have the desire to do it and the strength to back it up. That, and it's best since we both know each other. Think of it like you're a gun and I'm the guy who'll fire you into some poor snob's head."

'I guess that makes sense. Two people does 'up' the odds of a mission's success than one…but why didn't she send us here together if we were to work together?'

"Alex, how long have you been here?"

"Three days."

"THREE DAYS!... Well what have you been doing since then, and is there a reason why you weren't sent to where I was?"

'Okay, now that is quite a difference. I've been here for almost a week and the only time I was told about why I was here was after I almost died.'

"I asked that too, but it had something to do with you making contact with the main protagonist. I'm guessing it's that guy named Anz Owl Phone-."

"It's 'Ainz-Ooal-Gown,' you make sound like a telegraphic bird when you say it like that."

"What ev's. She was hoping this whole mission would be completed without interfering with whom the audience is most affiliated with. The disruption in how they'll see this anime unfold will mess with their 'acceptance' of it and if that's shaken too much, this dimensions' stability goes out the window."

"Ho-hold on, how does the audience's 'acceptance' interfere with this dimensions' stability. Isn't it something that's a given? The audience takes it as it is, if it's a confusing anime like 'Chaos Head', they accept it as one. If it's a gripping anime like 'Attack On Titan' they go crazy when Levi KO's a titan."

"Because we're not just in the anime, we're in the new anime 'Overlord' being released in 2015 and if need be the third season released in 2018. You're an anime lover and a Lego fan, you tell me how buyers are going to react when their product changes?"

I just stood there, as though in a daze. This boy, my own younger brother who doesn't watch as much anime as I do, has just single handily blown my mind. I arrived at the conclusion that this world truly is being watched by the control dimension as though it were a part of the original anime, but this development has opened my eyes even further.

I mean I don't have any solid proof that he's telling the truth, yet the reverse is also true. But this just goes to prove another hypothesis I've been working on.

"Okay Alex, I'm gonna come out and say it. I think the issue with this worlds belief in God, Vosdulite told us, was a lie. I mean, there're a tone of fictional stories that don't even have a hint of a single divine 'father'. Take 'No Game No Life' for instance, several gods and the one that rains supreme is a gaming kid. I know it sounds odd, you might say that the 'acceptance' this anime got was enough to support it this whole time. But the fact is, I don't see any reason why we need to change things here when it's done so well for the past three years on its own. They've even started calling Albedo 'best waifu' and 'yandere' (that parts obvious as hell)."

"Urrrgh-what's a waifu?!" Thousand leagues voiced. In all honesty, I'd actually forgotten she was there for a moment.

"Oh, waifu is just another way of saying 'best girl', fictional girlfriend," I sped spoke 50 words/sec. "As a matter of fact, you're prone to being a waifu."

"W-w-well, am I?" she blushed slightly.

"…Get some screen time, then we'll talk."

" _Huuu~_ …I'm afraid I can't bring myself to believe you, James," Alex said, his face now slowly becoming devoid of emotion. His eyes deadlocked with mine. "While you've compiled a fit argument there's nothing you can say that'll change my mind. Your interference alone has set things to change well beyond the planned 'subtle' changes."

"What are you saying?"

"Please materialize a chalk board for me. I know you made one when explaining things to Ainz for better clarification and I'll need one as well."

'I don't like where this is going,' I thought, outstretching my mechanical arm and concentrating on the wooden black board.

'The last time I made one of these, was to blow Ainz's mind, deliberately, in order to get my point across,' sparks flew, and the wooden frame with stilts materialized before being filled with the black board that grew from my palm. 'If my actions then had been integrated into the anime, Alex knows about it and will probably do the same.'

I went ahead and bit my thumb, smearing a streak of blood down the side of the frame before completely letting go and materializing a chalk in my left. It also had blood on it.

I tossed the chalk to Alex who snatched from the air with a bare hand and turned to the board. "Alright, pay attention now, it's lecture time," he gave a glance at our pair of onlookers. "This concerns you as well, so don't black out."

"Oh, don't worry," Thousand Leagues smirked, crossing her arms. "After the rant Garmadon gave here, I intend to hear where he's coming from."

"Hehe, well alright then~," he giggled with a grin turning back to the board, five medium circles were drawn crammed together inside a larger circle around them all.

He then went on, explaining nearly everything I told Ainz, but threw a little more vinegar on their understanding of the world than I have.

"Now you're defying the words of our gods….," looking back at Thousand Leagues, she was in one of her angry moods again. Fists clenched, frown on her face and shaking all over.

"Hush fizzy bottle. Don't blow your top while the teachers' talking," I spoke in a deep dead voice.

"What-!"

"Aaannyy way, this dimension isn't the only one there is. There are in fact, millions," Alex drew spirals in the remaining circles. "Where we are from, we call these stories. Created for the entrainment by those in the 'control dimension'-."

"You're just using my acronyms now, aren't you?"

"It's a lot easier to use a term already in use than make one right off the bat."

"Fine. So that's how things are," I took over. "And we're both beings brought here from the 'control dimension' for reasons already explained."

"You're half way there," Alex took control again, drawing another circle around the biggest circle and a pair of lines on either side drawn from the space between the outside space and the centre circle.

"What you didn't explain, or rather what you _couldn't_ explain, was that when someone from the control dimension enters one of the product dimensions, it creates something akin to a rippling effect. The neighbouring dimensions are exempt from this, but any unscripted events that occur because of the new being's presence are considered as truth in the control. Though it's not like your time travelling, people still remember the original version of it, but all current one's are re-written. Anyone sent to a story dimension immediately end up in the same time as the beginning of the story, and whatever they do reflects on ours and becomes the norm."

"So why was it that when you were sent here, you didn't arrive at the same time I did?"

"It's because you were already here. Two people can't arrive at the same point in a story if they both left the control dimension at different times."

"I'm, guessing Vosdulite told you all this."

"She crammed it into my head like you wouldn't believe~," he grumbled, dropping the chalk.

"I'm sorry, but I can't accept this," Thousand Leagues interrupted. "The only beings capable of even traveling between dimensions are the gods themselves. And if someone were to travel, they'd still need magical energy on their level-."

"Vosdulite herself transported us, and she's a servant of a god far greater than yours," I said. "And do you remember when I said I knew of the massacre at Carne village? I knew because I watched it happen from my own dimension, I also know that the entire Sunlight scripture was not wiped out by Gazeff Stronoff, but by a sorcerer whom even I fear~."

Rubbing my neck, I recollected how Ainz held me in the air by my neck. I guess I could thank my healing for not letting it snap, but I pondered how I managed to remain conscious.

"Anyway~," Alex mused, dropping the chalk before crunching it underfoot. I couldn't see his feet because the cloak reached down to the ground. "To get back home, we need to save this world by changing it. And before you start, no I don't believe you with the whole 'we should leave things the way they are'," he said, wagging a finger at me. "But in situations such as these, we must look at the bigger picture and do what's right for ourselves."

I then remembered that Thousand Leagues had said there was an attack on a nearby village, and that all too soon, this place would be next.

"A-Alex, Vosdulite said to fix this world, w-we had to return the dead to rest and change this worlds' religion to Christianat-nity..," I stuttered looking him square in blue eyes. "To that end, I was granted my fictional character's powers. You haven't attacked any villages recently with what you've been given, have you?"

To assume Alex had abilities granted to him as well would be a fair assumption, the move I saw him pull on stage was more than a hint. After all, he was here because I wasn't doing my job and if he were the added help, it would be stupid not to send him in with tools as well.

Alex's face fell grim before looking down to the ground, Shredder looked as though he too shared the same feelings. "I-it hurt so much-,"

"THOUSAND LEAGUES!" someone was yelling down the street.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The day was late in the afternoon at the kingdom of the Slane Theocracy. In the capitals palace, the Captain of the Black Scripture was walking down one of its many gloomily lit hallways in lightly shuffling armour coloured mainly white with gold outlining it.

With red eyes, he mulled over the meeting that had just taken place with the six Cardinals.

'So the Cardinals wish to simply observe. It makes sense in observing whomever can defeat that vampire, but why not actively look into this 'Ainz Ooal Gown' who claims to have defeated Nigun?' he thought, clutching his spear tightly. 'Before Nigun left, he was given a miracle of the gods [Dominion Authority], the least we could've done is recover that relic-.'

 _Shlick….shlick…shlick_

Before he could think any further, a light shuffling and clicking noise drifted from down the other end of the hallway. Before too long he spotted a teenage girl leaning against the wall, around 18 with hair white as snow reaching just above her chest while covering the sides of her head outwardly.

She wore a long sleeve on her right arm and a single shin guard on her right leg both same colour as her hair. A light arm gauntlet black as the shadows covered her left arm that while she wore a stocking of the same colour on her left leg. Illuminated by the candle lights she fiddled with a small cube with numerous coloured squares.

"Is that a rubix cube?" he silently called. "Haven't seen one of those in ages, Zesshi."

Zesshi cranked her head in his direction, showing the left side of her hair to also be black as shadows. Her eyes were dulled in boredom, one white and the other black.

"I could always get on side, but anything beyond that was a true test of patience," she monotoned, turning her attention back to the cube.

"Of course, that's the point~. Another trial from the Six Great Gods," he replied, stopping next to her. "In the past 6 centuries, few have passed it."

She lightly scoffed at the boring piece of information he shared.

"So…what's so dire that it called for a gathering of all the cardinals?"

"You got the report same as the rest of us-."

"-Didn't read it~. It's easier to ask someone who knows the situation," she replied, turning a few more slides and getting one side mostly of one colour. "Your last mission was to subjugate the Catastrophe of the Dragon Lord, right? I'm assuming seventh seat; Thousand Leagues Astrologer's prediction was faulty~."

We ran into trouble," the captain said, tone becoming more serious along with his expression. "A powerful vampire. It murdered Cadran and Beaumachais and severely injured lady Kaire so we retreated."

"Myrid Barrier and Divine Chain dead, huh? We just can' seem to keep the 9th seat filled," Zesshi mused, turning one last slide and completing the orange side of the rubix cube. "So….who do you think is stronger, me or that blood sucker?"

"You are of course," the captain answered without hesitation, but internally doubting his own reply to some degree.

"….I see," she sighed, losing interest to the whole topic. "That's disappointing~. I thought it might be able to defeat me. Come to think of it, I hear the Sunlight Scripture was whipped out too."

"It was. A caster named Ainz Ooal Gown has claimed responsibility. Though we can't confirm since no bodies were left behind."

"I see. So he's strong-."

"-Hard to say. The Sunlight's captain lost to the Blue Rose once."

"Of course Nigun was outdone be those harpies….. Why is it a strong man so hard to find, Captain?" she whined, rubbing her belly. "It doesn't matter if he's hideous, inside or out. He could even be inhuman for all I care. Best me, and his seed would be all I need. Our legacy would be a child of unmatched strength, oh they'd make mommy proud someday~."

While Zesshi giggled to herself, a little sadistically, the captain was a little in thought.

'Unbelievable…. She's the secret ace of the Black Scripture and strongest in all the Theocracy and all she can think about is losing to someone then having sex with them. If she lost on the battlefield humanity might as well have lost with her. Like I'm one to talk though, I can't find any woman who's strong and meets the criteria to be my spouse.'

While internally complaining, the marching of metal from the outside drew his focus to the windows aligned the opposite side of the hallway.

The Captain walked over to a nearby arch window and peaked outside. Out below, a dozen soldiers were marching in formation in the front courtyard, 3 by 4 to a bigger group numbering in the 50's or so with a horse by their sides.

They were also lined up in military formation dawned in pale armour on their shoulders, shins, lower arms and back. Over half of them were comprised of mages while a good third of them were equipped with close combat weapons.

"Seems the Cardinals have already started mobilising some of the Holocaust scripture," he began speaking aloud, but Zesshi was flat out ignoring him and was back to fiddling with the cube. But the captain continued anyway. "During the meeting, it was brought to light that a town North of the capital called Daigel is about to be under siege by an outside force. It hasn't been confirmed if it's an opposing kingdom, but as the anti-terrorist branch, a portion of the Holocaust soldiers are being redirected from the war with the elves to assist in defending."

The Captain turned back around, hoping for a little interest from Zesshi. But as expected she wasn't caring much for the matter. He was considering telling her that if the Holocaust scripture fails, the Black scripture was next to mobilize, but he didn't want to get her all excited only to crash. She might even go on a rampage to satisfy her pent-up excitement.

Giving a light sigh of defeat, he continued walking down the corridor.

'Thousand Leagues Astrologer is still on her mission, isn't she? When brining back that new recruit from the Re-Estize kingdom I hope they don't have to pass through Daigel. It'd be problematic if we lost a god-kin as talented as her.'

 **Interlude: Thousand Leagues Astrologer**

The sudden call of Thousand Leagues Astrologers name all three of them turn their heads towards the street it had come from. With chestnut hair tied into a side ponytail, Aurita came running down the street clad in tight silver armour with silver knee long high-heels. Including a double handed sword hanging from her waist, a cape, burgundy on one side with bright red on the underside was flapping as she sprinted.

She was accompanied by a pair of Slane Theocracy military mafic casters, also in silver armoured robes wearing pale cylindrical helmets with a filtered hole in the front. Typical armour for their kingdoms magic casters.

" _Haa-haa..,_ what is with me trying to find you all the time~," she panted coming up with a smile before skipping to a halt, the casters halted with less elegance. "We now have a game plan for defending the city. We'll need you, Laurissa and Garmadon to come with…me….to ….deff… IT'S YOU!"

At a moment's notice, Aurita had gone into a side-on defensive stance with a hand on her hilt.

"Oh, I remember you," Alex began with a look as though he had an epiphany. "You're the girl I spared from that group in the forest of Tob. You're looking way better than I remember."

"Yea, it's me. But why are you here? It hasn't been three days yet."

"I said I would bring calamity to the _entire_ kingdom in three days. I didn't say anything about _not_ making a start with it."

At this point, Thousand Leagues was anxious, a nagging feeling was eating away at the back of her mind while slowly putting the pieces together. "..Urrrghhh-Aaarrghhh! Are you saying that Alex here is the one who declared war on the Theocracy!?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, please move away from him you three!"

With her reasoning for being so 'uperty' clear for everyone, the accompanying guards went in to attack formation with their hands raised in front of them ready to cast offensive magic.

"…You really have no idea, do you?" _Snap_

With a snap of his fingers, Shredder, still perched on Alex's shoulder and a little bit drowsy become fully focused after giving a stretch.

"Ngy _aaahhhh~._ "

Shredder gave the cutest raw that also seemed menacing at the same time. Moments passed, and the earth they stood upon deeply rumbled, ever growing. The people around were reacting to the tremors the same as the party, looking to the ground while their feet were wide spread as though ready to make a dash for it.

"Evlybody, pe-leaze move byarck~," one of the guards instructed to the startled citizens in the most exotic voice imaginable.

"What the hell did you do, Alex?!" Garmadon yelled, panicked, towards his brother who acted as though nothing of importance was occurring.

"….What I have to…" is all he said.

Suddenly the earth at their feet erupted with so much force, boulders of the road they stood upon were flung to give way to a something rising from beneath.

"Get back!" yelled Aurita, grabbing Thousand Leagues by the collar and dragging her back.

Laurissa made it to safe distance beside the two. Before them the pillar with dirt brown skin swayed, as though a blade of grass in the soft breeze. There was a loud crunching sound of rock from above and it rained pebbles. It was an earth eater.

Earth eaters are a species related to common farm worms. Though unlike _those_ worms, earth eaters evolved after relying on a diet of large animals, the nutrients and magic within vast quantities of soil and solid rock. Through their evolution, they developed skin tougher than steel, five jaws at their mouth which close in like a flower on their unfortunate snack around the middle. Crushing it to death.

"IT'S A MONSTER!"

"AAAARRRRGGHHH!"

"Mommy~!"

In panic, the onlookers scrambled to their feet in an attempt to flee. The pair of magic soldiers stood their ground, trembling slightly before assuming their previous casting stance.

"[Summon magic; angel]," a large circle filled with light appeared in front on the ground of one of them and platinum helmet with a golden halo and red visor rose from it.

" _cough-cough-_ [magic multiplication] [shockwave]," after clearing his voice, a pair of red circles in one another appeared before the hands of the other and a series of clear pulses were blasted at the worms body.

The earth eater was then sliding back down into earth, Thousand Leagues saw that Alex was at the craters edge. Completely unfazed by the broken chunks of earth he stood upon or the continuous aftershocks of the multiple [shockwave]'s, as though it was natural for him. Alex held Garmadon in one hand by the scruff of his shirt. He must've grabbed him amidst all the confusion.

"So, I'm guessing this is how your opening attack went in the previous town, am I right?" he croaked in Alex's grasp.

"It is, but how do you know I lead the charge?" Alex responded.

" _thc_ … When I first heard of the attack from Thousand Leagues over there, I thought 'hey, this is just a part of the story'. But I then got a gnawing feeling in the back of my head. Not once, out of both the seasons I watched was there any mention of the Theocracy being invaded. Given they're on bad terms with literally every neighbouring country on the continent, but not once have they been attacked by an army of animals. Plus, animals aren't all that smart on their own, but give a motivated tactician with a means of controlling all of them and bam, instant army with a variety of strengths~."

"But that still doesn't explain how you knew it was me~."

"Easy, your motivation is to change the religious system in this world, what better way to start off than wiping out the biggest religion first. A clean slate. I mean…that's what I would've done."

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because I don't want to be genocidal hypocrite who thought 'hey, let's kill a whole bunch of people to get back home before considering all my options'!" Garmadon bellowed.

"You don't know what it's like!" Alex yelled. "I've had to kill _so_ many people all on my own, and I have considered all my options! You may be having the time of your life being here, but not me because I actually want to go home!"

Extending out an arm, a dark mist formed in Garmadon's palm before solidifying into a black box with a pair of metal studs sticking out one end with a blue spark zapping between them.

"But I can't have you committing genocide," clutching the box tightly, Garmadon rammed it at Alex's neck but before making contact, Alex gripped Garmadons wrist, twisting the box out of his hand and flinging him round before being rammed into the ground back first. Still holding firm, Alex snatched the box from mid-air.

"- _Gah-dararararagh~!"_

Garmadon screamed as the box's studs slammed into his chest, sparks flying as his body spazzed uncontrollably.

"Sorry, James. But I'm not letting you stop me," Alex monotoned standing above the unconscious body of his brother, the box he held disappeared in a minor array of pixels. "And with only half of your abilities you're no more of a threat to me than Clementime was to Ainz-."

"[Confusion]!"

A yellow bolt rocketed at Alex, in a split second he dodged narrowly missing his head.

"Attack him."

At the command with a sword of light, the summoned angel rushed Alex who raised his hand against it. Suddenly the angel was unclosed in solid ice before it could react and smashed into the ground, shattering into pieces.

"You two are annoying," he declared in annoyance, raising his hands with a pale blue orb manifesting in each while bending his legs. "But your military position will come in handy."

In a split second he pounced and in what seemed like a single step, Alex had travelled several meters and slammed his palms into their chests.

'So fast!' Thousand Leagues yelped internally.

"Soul merge!"

Both the casters pulsed pale blue while frozen still. After the blue auras disappeared, Alex removed his hands and stood before them, unafraid.

"I-e thynk reet n- _coughcough_ …sorry, couldn't stand this dudes way of talking," the one with the exotic accent spoke. "Anyway, we should be going around spreading the word of Christ in with this bodies."

"Hold on, WHAT are you talking about!?" Aurita yelled. "Are you turning you back on the six gods for this false religion?"

They trio turned to her before giving a blunt answer. "Bingo, and right now _we_ aren't the casters from before, but copies of Alex here with the memories and body of the casters. So there."

"So….He's made _more_ of himself?"

"Yep, later," at the remark the two bolted down the street yelling out random words like 'Jesus' or 'Adam and Eve'.

"What the _hell_ …."

Alex faced Shredder who was comfortably seated on the ground beside him while scratching his ear "Shredder, continue the second phase. We've wasted enough time already."

At a moment's notice, Shredder's once sky-blue eyes turned to deep red before going black as night and his blood orange fur became dark orange. He grew in size at the same time, fangs and claws alike growing longer, the white splodges turning purple. Thousand Leagues felt a magical pulse throughout the air from it.

"reeeeeyAARRRGGHHH!"

A trembling roar, sending chills down spines, echoed from the crater as the earth rumbled once more but with an ever-growing presence of a trampling hoard towards the surface.

A hand with skin dark as leather, fingers thicker than a humans' and a palm bigger than Thousand Leagues' head gripped the edge of the crater. The pavement crumbled underneath and a bull's head twice the size of an average one quickly followed, eyes ablaze, saliva dripping from grinding chops and deep brown horns curved in. It unveiled itself to be a towering minotaur.

With charred coloured fur growing from its back, rear elbow and waist down, the beast stood upon a pair of freshly muddy hooves. There was a forest of thicker fur below its turned in knees growing over its hooves. The fact that it had fresh mud on it possibly meant the tunnel it had come from was just as muddy.

"Now go, you mindless beast. Wreak havoc upon this town as you did the last," Alex commanded, standing up to the minotaur.

Unexpectedly, it landed onto all fours and suddenly charged into the 'Quill Saloon', destroying it entirely with wood crumbling under its own weight and dust being thrown up as it toppled. Bloodied screams cried out before being gurglingly cut off.

The trio stood in bewilderment, a human had just commanded a demi human, a monster, and it followed without any rejection. As though a soldier following its generals orders.

"Well what are all you lot doing down there? Get up here and HELP!"

They all snapped from the now pile of splinters towards Alex, who stood by the edge of the crater yelling into it.

 _Clap-clap!_

"Hup to!"

On que, the head of a two-horned black python slithered out with the same eyes as the minotaur. On order, the serpent slithered into the nearby alleyway between two houses. Suddenly all manner of creatures erupted from the crater, as though water being forced through a bottle neck. Wolves, giant arachnids, serpents, lizards, rats and a few more minotaur's came forth, surging in every direction.

The stampede hurdled towards the them with the intent to kill.

"[Levitate] and [fly]!"

At a moment's notice, Thousand Leagues cast her levitation spell on them all and they shot up above the wild torrent.

"That was close," she sighed in relief. The shattering of class windows and the gurgling screams of more deaths in the distance howling heavily in the air.

Thousand Leagues was in shock, she was part of the Black Scripture which can be put into situations which others would deem horrifying. But not once has she ever been put into a situation where mass genocide was happening right in front of her eyes, it was always her and the scripture against powerful foes.

They all looked out at the view of the town, there were rising pillars of black smoke and the tops of buildings crumbling to the ground.

"How could things get this bad?" Aurita asked aloud. As though to answer her question, three earth eaters erupted from the ground in separate locations further away before sliding back in. In no time flat, more screams were heard from where they appeared followed by clouds of dust.

"T-there like battalions, waves being deployed in different areas at a time so as to draw our attention to one only to have another popup elsewhere," Thousand Leagues observed.

"Well done, I'm guessing you're the smartest out of the lot."

Back to Alex, they saw that he stood on the ground looking up at them. Garmadon still lay unconscious by his feet with his mouth hanging open and a bit of drool running out.

The hole had stopped pouring monster, and while some would take that as a good sign, others would consider the hordes already loose in the town.

A light tap on Thousand Leagues arm drew her attention to Laurissa.

"Make me an opening," she whispered while gripping her estoc.

Thousand Leagues gave a nod before turning back to Alex.

"Why are you doing this? Our nation doesn't pose as any threat for the 'control dimension', and nor to you. So why?" Thousand Leagues called.

Around him the air condensed with mist and sparkled white, mostly around his feet where the ground began freezing over but under both boys. Suddenly a pillar of ice erupted from the frozen ground to bring Alex level with the floating trio. Garmadon remained unconscious at the base but was sitting up with his back to the ice.

The street below them hadn't been broken by the act and was instead surrounded by fresh mist.

"You ask why?" he asked in a composed voice, taking a step forward while reaching a hand out to undo a pair of buttons on the cloak just under his collar bone.

An ice path with supports from the top side of the pillar came to be just in time for him to place his foot down.

"It's because I must. If you were listening I want to go home. To do that I need to destroy the misplaced faith people have in false deities. Your kingdom is no exception."

Tossing the cloak aside, a set of silver armour was revealed with a pair of gauntlets hanging by his hip while on the other hung a sheathed sword with a golden hand guard and an emerald in the hilt. While in its scabbard, the sword looked like a golden cross with an emerald top.

Snuggly gripping his body, the armour had a sapphire imbedded in its chest with jade vines reaching out to it from under his arms and thick shoulder guards. They looked like upside-down bowls coated in steel with green vines growing from under them.

Alex continued walking towards them with even more ice forming for his path. As he came closer, Thousand Leagues reached her arm around her back while holding three fingers so Alex couldn't see.

"So why don't you use that 'soul takeover' thing you used on the two soldiers to _persuade_ him, or even us for that matter?" Thousand Leagues called as Alex unclipped a gauntlet and slipped his hand into it.

'Two fingers.'

The palms of the gauntlets were covered in black fabric with steel plating between the knuckles and over the top. "Cuz I really don't want to kill off my own family-."

'One finger.'

"-you, on the other hand, completely expendable."

At this point, Alex's focus was now more on Thousand Leagues than it was on the other two.

'Zero.'

She took this opportunity and hurled Laurissa as though pitching a stone using the [levitation] spell. The girl became a streaking blur of pink and glittering light heading for Alex.

In a split second before Laurissa struck into Alex, red sparks danced across Alex's body again and in another Laurissa was snatched out of the air before being hung by her ankle held in one armoured hand.

"Really, a surprise attack?" he asked nonchalantly, lifting Laurissa up with ease till he was looking down at her in the eyes. "You really should think outside the stereotype-."

"[Flow acceleration]!"

At the sudden chant, Laurissa swung her estoc at Alex's chest plate but harmlessly ricocheting off his armour with a loud _Ding!_ But she didn't let up, letting loose a barrage of jabs at the underside of his elbows, wrists, armpits, abdomen and where ever the armour was without a doubt weaker.

"Garrghhh!" Alex gasped in pain, releasing his hold on Laurissa, but it was in that moment that she grabbed the ice ledge, swung down and used the momentum to carry herself right back up to deliver a pound under Alex's jaw with her heels. _Crunch!_ "Durgjh..~"

Laurissa sailed through the air above him until landing on top of the ice pillar and assuming a counterattack position with her legs bent and both hands on her handle. She dashed at Alex still frozen in position after the kick with jaw fractured and dislocated. Laurissa ran her estoc though his neck and out the other end with a coating of bright red blood running across it.

The atmosphere began dying down, but just as it did more red sparks danced around Alex's open wounds and enveloped his mis-formed jaw.

Instantly recognising the phenomena, Thousand Leagues yelled out. "Laurissa, get away from him! He may have the same regeneration as Garmado-!"

She was immediately cut off as Alex grabbed the estoc just past the hand guard and held firm. Laurissa tried yanking it out to no avail before abandoning the weapon and retreated to her original position.

Alex turned to face her frozen like a statue with his jaw clicking back to place while pulling out the sword from his neck with ease. Just as it came out, Alex though the estoc at Laurissa like a dart. She snatched it from the air but Alex had used the distraction and dashed behind her with a drawn executioner sword gripped in both hands.

Executioner swords have the same width from the base to their curved head instead of the traditional point.

"Too slow!" he yelled about to bring the blade down but was halted by the pillar they stood upon suddenly shaking. The frozen ledge shattered under its own weight and while everyone followed its decent it was battered away by another rapidly rising pillar with sparks of black and white dancing as it rose.

This one was much larger than the ice and made of black metal with a pair of dark red streaks racing down the sides from the base of a largely rounded mass atop.

"JESUS!"

"[Agility boost]."

Laurissa and Alex both leapt away at the last minute before the rounded mass opened to a hand in a clunking sound and slammed onto the pillar, shattering it underneath while gripping it. A second larger mass with enormous spikes jutting from it began rising behind the first heading right for Thousand Leagues and Aurita.

Projecting her magic forward, the pair bounced in the air backwards, towards the roof of a nearby house that was still miraculously standing. She deactivated the spell and landed on the tiled roof, Laurissa landed next to them with a light thud, the martial arts she used earlier now worn off.

They all turned back and beheld a giant, clad in black metal, arms far wider than that of any carriage with massive spikes rising from shoulder guards. Its head was hugged in black metal with a red ring wrapped around its forehead, crimson eyes beamed from a face resembling that of a crow's skull.

" _And now things just got real!_ " boomed a statically familiarly loud voice from the giant, the earth booming as it took steps to stand before them, crushing rubble underfoot.

The building they were on top of was double storied, elevating them just below its waist. It was so friggin HUGE!

"Since when could you make something like that, Garmadon? You've never done it before!"

" _Oh I've always been able to do this, just never had enough time to mentally picture it,"_ came the voice resonating through the air, the head turned to look down at them.

'….So that's how it is..' Thousand Leagues thought, thinking back to all that he'd previously made before. 'The reason why he'd make handheld weapons more than ones like these was because they're larger to imagine. That and his physical prowess more than made up for it.'

"So you've resorted yourself to your mecha LEGO creations. They'd certainly give you a boon in any fight!" everyone turned to Alex who stood on the ground alone. "Too bad I was there when you made it all, so I know all the weaknesses on this behemoth!"

" _And I yours_ ," spoke Garmadon. " _It took me some time, but I now I'm sure. Vosdulite granted you the abilities of your fictional character as well, didn't she?"_

"You guessed it!" suddenly the ground erupted at his feet and vines thick as trees rocketed at all of them in a mass.

The vines dove straight into the appendages of the mecha, burrowing through them and out the other end. Laurissa and Aurita were able to leap out of the way. But being a mage, Thousand Leagues didn't have the agility to leap out of the way, nor the time to cast any flight magic to get away.

 _Karraachk!_

A cloud of dust erupted from the rubble of the crumbling house as the vines buried themselves into the building before retracting.

"That mecha of yours maybe powerful in overall strength, but it's sorely lacking in the speed department," Alex finished, one of the vines curled under his feet, lifting him up while he stood as though on a pedestal. "Wha~?"

Getting a better view though the dust as it slowly cleared, the red and black colour pattern with shoulder spikes of the robot was then revealed with its back turned. Roots were still impaled in ligaments and limbs, twisted all over.

"Don't be an idiot James. You said it yourself, 'this world isn't real', so who cares if a few key aspects are changed. At least we can go HOME!"

Still on the roof, shielded by the mech, Thousand Leagues laid sprawled on the tiles with a mixed expression of shock, fear and relief. The giant swayed slightly with creaking metal. Blue pixels were leaking from the holes in its body where the vines impaled like blood leaking from wounds.

"…B-but why….?" she asked in dumbfound confusion.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Thousand Leagues Astrologer," boomed the static voice. " _I stand by what I first said and think that the Slane Theocracy are a bunch of religious pricks who need a good beating…_ ,"

"Then why-."

" _But it's because you're a bunch of pricks that need a good beating that I won't sit back and let someone else do it. The only one I believe to have the right to do it in this world, is Ainz Oal Gown. That's what I've been wanting since the end of the first of the season_."

"Th-thanks?.." she responded a little unsure and confused by the sudden declaration.

"That's all well and good!" Alex yelled from behind, still atop his vine pedestal with swirling vines at the base. "But your interests don't matter if you can't do anything about it!"

Suddenly, a mass of vines entrapped the top of the mech before coiling around it. Amidst it, six lights shone a bright orange.

The giant flayed back and began waving violently, grabbing at the vines and tearing them off. But the multitude and mass became too much and eventually had the whole thing tied up in so much vegetation it looked like a tree without leaves, slowing the mech's movements.

 _Boom!_

Just as it stopped moving, the back exploded out and a hole through the vines and into the mech was opened. Garmadon appeared, hoisting a large metal pole with him before leaping out himself with the pole held high.

Before falling too far, a pair set of four wide blades stacked on top one another, snapped open then rapidly rotated in opposing directipno. In no time they were a blur and Garmadon glided down towards Thousand Leagues.

"Bam, Marry Poppins is here!" he yelled while gripping on for dear life before landing with a clop on the tiled roof.

Garmadon's black cloak had been burnt up to his waist, shoulders and a chunk from the front while outlined with fizzling glowing embers. He was also burnt on the forearms, but not too badly.

"What did you do?" asked Thousand Leagues as he dropped the mechanism, which disappeared into blue pixels.

"I won't go into details….," he said, the enveloped robot began pixelating and the mass of vines began leaving its captive only to combine together behind it. "…But I used some dynamite to blow a hole in the back which I then used to get out from. Though I kinda forgot to create cover until just before it went ' _kaboom'_."

He patted down his burnt cloak before taking the piece of the fabric off himself, gritting his teeth when the fabric touched his burnt skin. Without the cloak covering it, Garmadon was in his burnt and bloodied stained white shirt.

"Man, and I really liked this thing too," he groaned, wrapping it up into a ball.

"THOUSAND LEAGUES!" Suddenly Aurita landed on the roof with Laurisa and grappled her into a bear hug. "I thought he'd killed you."

"Sorry, but are you talking about me, or the kid over there on top of something out of 'Men in Black 2'?"

Back at Alex, the dryad was now fully formed and looked like a giant twisted tadpole thing with its legs where its arms should be. A mouth that could swallow a tanker hung agape with bloody red soil at the back and three orange eyes in a cluster on either side of its head behind the mouth.

Atop its head stood Alex with an excited grin and with Shredder in his beast form beside him.

"Hey, James, bring out that robot again. I didn't get enough of a 'Pacific Rim' thrill out of it~!" he called out with a voice trembling slightly in excitement.

Thousand leagues stared intently at Garmadon, half expecting him to make a cocky remark before going in to the fray. But to her surprise, he shuffled back with a twitching smile on his face.

"D-dam~," he cursed under his breath in shaky whisper.

No one understood what the matter was, this kid wasn't nearly this afraid when he first stood up against Alex, nor the vampire that would've made mince-meat out of them all with her bare hands. So what was different this time?

"Gar-James, can I call you James?" Thousand Leagues asked in a whisper.

"For the duration of this conversation, I don't care if you even call me 'Jelly Legs'," he answered back.

"Whatever. Are you okay? You weren't like this when you shot Laurissa, fort in the bar or against that vampire. So why are you so afraid?"

"…I..It's quite simple. When I fought Shalltear, I had close to a million lives in me. But now I've just got the one. If I had my shard in me I'd be able to _do something,_ " he hissed with venom.

'A million lives?!' Thousand Leagues shrieked internally. 'So that's what I sensed from that shard, lives! Wait, could this then mean that it acts like the 'Jewel of death' Zuranon uses? Utilizing the mass collection of energy to….. no that would be death. The 'Jewel of death' thrives on energy of the dead given off by fresh corpses. In contrast to that, I felt actual LIFE. It's a long shot, but this may go further to prove to Harold that he isn't from that cult.'

"Fine, you can have it," she responded, rummaging through her bag. "But first, you're going to tell me what that shard re _ally_ is, or I'm breaking it."

"Hah! You won't be able to break that shard even if you put a buzz saw against it~," he said before letting out a sigh of defeat, running metal fingers through his hair while hissing between his teeth. "Fine, it's a philosopher's stone, happy?"

"…"

"…"

"…A what?" Thousand Leagues asked in dumb confusion.

In this new world, philosopher stones weren't something wildly known. In terms of alchemy, alchemists focused more on potions that'd buff people's health, exp, chances of survival, the works. Due to economical demand and wars, big businesses never really bothered looking into the miracle elixir for immortality.

"A phil-osi-phers stone," Garmadon slurred intuitively.

Thousand Leagues was about to retort but was immediately interrupted. "So that's what's holding you up! That PS really is big now that I see it."

Alex was holding an eye shut with a pair of fingers over his eyelid.

"Take a look at your feet. You know what this is, James," he yelled, pointing at them.

They all looked down to their feet. Just hidden behind Laurissa's foot was a small grey skinned lizard, the size of a brick, with eyes glazed over in a deep crimson and a blue tongue flicking in and out.

"A lizard-."

"Get rid of it!"

Garmadon bolted towards Laurissa, snagging up the reptile and tossing it off in a random direction.

"Someone wanna tell what that was?" called Thousand Leagues.

"It's one of Alex's abilities," Garmadon responded, coming back. "By closing at least one eye, he can see through the eyes of any animal he's made contact with in the past. Last I checked there's no range."

"Then….that would mean he could have eyes everywhere," Aurita said, shocked at the ability.

"~That's not even the worst of it~."

"You know I'd love to stick around and play 'catch-up', but I'm afraid I've got some unsavoury business to attend to here!…Mass slaughter of unbelievers and all," Alex yelled, with a little detest in his voice for the last part. "I'll make it so the animals won't harm you, James. Everyone else though, total goners."

"Wai-What!?"

"Later," at the send-off Alex almost instantaneously turned into a bolt and disappeared from the vine pedestal with faint red sparks buzzing in the air. Shredder was gone too.

"Was that teleportation?" Laurissa asked.

"Nope," Garmadon replied, giving his right eye a little rub. "He just moved so fast you couldn't see him."

Suddenly the tiles they stood upon began clattering. In the moments they'd been distracted, the dryad serving Alex had divided into a mass of snacking vines that snacked to the base of the building. The rest of the dryad was smaller than before with only two glowing eyes on either side this time and slumped down a random street on its viny appendages. Laruissa and Aurita glared over the edge.

"The vines are grinding away at the building and coming up!" yelled Autrita back in strong concern. "We gotta move!"

"Have your shard back, James," Thousand Leagues said, grabbing his hand and shoving the crimson gem into his hand. The sheer size and shape of it was enough to make it look like a shining dagger.

"Previous conversations over, can you please go back to calling me Garmadon."

Laurissa and Aurita were already making a bolt off the roofs ledge.

"[Agility boost]."

On their chant, both their bodies pulsed in a dull orange aura before literally soaring through the air, landing on the roof of a nearby building. It wasn't as stable as the previous, hell not even in one piece considering half of it was in rubble.

"Heh, I can do better," Garmadon boasted, gripping the shard in trembling metal fingers with the tip hovering just above his heart.

 **Interlude: Garmadon/James**

'Oh jeez, what the hell am I doing?!'

Starring down at the tip of the shard, wobbling just above my chest, my hand was shacking in fear.

'Vosdulite said there was a chance that getting my shard back would kill me. Even if I'd live, I'm not delusional enough to inflict self-harm like before. Guess power can make you go crazy-.'

"GARMADON!"

"HaH-."

 _Shank._

Thousand Leagues yell shocked my train of thought and set my muscles into reflex mode. Next thing I knew, it felt like I was back in my fight with Albedo. A stinging pain in my chest pounded away, coupled with a swelling urge.

Cranking my head down, I saw that my hand was still clutching the shard, though said shard was now a third in my chest and I could feel a bit protruding from my back. Blood running between my fingers, I trembly removed my hand with a twitch pulling at the corner of my lips.

"I-I'm s-sorry," Thousand Leagues trembled in horror at realizing what she'd done, raising her hand ready to cast magic.

"E-eheh," I slightly giggled as the swelling urge took control and the shard pulsed a bright red, followed by dancing red sparks at the wound.

"Heya…eeehehe….neyahhaha-haaaahaha!"

Uncontrollably bellowing in laughter, the shard drilled into my chest on its own with sparks in its wake in excruciating pain as broken ribs and heart melded themselves back.

"Aah-hah~~ _tfff_ ~ ooh this feels gah-REAT!"

The hole closed shut and my body thickly pulsed in red all the way to the tops of my fingers and the reaching into the depths of my sockets.

 **Interlude: Thousand Leagues Astrologer**

"[Flames]," Thousand Leagues was gripping onto her extended wrist as flames burst out at the vines coming at them.

It had only been a few moments since Garmadon had gone into his daze, but the vines took that moment to launch themselves at them. She'd originally prepared to assist Garmadon, but the current issue was more pressing.

With each passing moment, the building they stood on become less and less stable.

Thousand Leagues wanted to get all these suckers in one go, but she didn't specialize in offensive magic as much as reconnaissance.

"We're coming Thousand Leagues!"

On the other roof, Laruissa and Aurita were about to leap to her aid.

"No don't!" she protested, burning a couple of vines that went for her ankles. The rooftop was becoming more and more like a garden of these things.

"Why not?!"

"This building's becoming more unstable with each passing moment. A little extra weight could send this us all crumble to the ground with it-[Flames]!"

As though to prove her point, the building gave a dreadful shudder, violently lurching to one side.

"But you're not strong enough for full out attack magic. Those vines will overrun you eventually-!?"

 _Fwoosh!_

In an instant the surrounding vines exploded into flame, burning to cinders in no time.

"~That's true as hell~," rose a mocking voice, topped with arrogance.

Thousand Leagues struck round to face Garmadon.

"It's about time you did something useful," she remarked, flames dying and leaving ashes.

"Oh shut up, you're the ones who held me back," he said, flexing his metallic fingers before opening them. A slight spark buzzed in his palm before becoming a solid green ball with a pin in the top. "But I guess I can be as benevolent as to forgive you."

'….Benevolent?'

Garmadon pulled the pin and through it over the roofs edge. Before she knew it, Thousand Leagues was swept up in Garmadons arms like she was some kind of princess with his knees bent.

"Wha-w-w-what in the world are you-Whahh!"

Before she could even finish, Garmadon had leaped off….no, rocketed off the roof with a massive amount of force. So much so that the entire roof was shattered under the force.

 _Booom!_

An explosion erupted from where the ball had been thrown by the base. That was the last amount of force the structure could take before buckling under its own weight to one side and crushing an unfortunate pack of wolves below.

The two landed on the next roof where Aurita and Laurisa were, crunching the tiles under Garmadons feet before grinding to a halt on the medium bit of roof left. It shuddered slightly from the impact until calming slightly.

"That was a close one," remarked Aurita as she and Laurissa swiftly moved over to them. "In my opinion you took way took long."

"Well it was this idiots fault by just standing there while laughing his head off," gestured Thousand Leagues towards Garmadon while still being cradled in his arms. Her heart was pounding in her chest from the sudden thrill she'd just gone through. "Now let me go, I could've flown out of there just fine without your help. Or don't you remember what happened in the bar before you murdered someone."

"Hey, don't patronize me," he protested, letting Thousand Leagues down. "The guy broke my nose and was about to turn my head into jelly. It was self-defence."

"We were there, remember? We could've healed you before you died—what's wrong with your ear?"

"Huh?"

Garmadon reached up to his left ear to ear to give it a feel only to draw his hand back with the lump of flesh in hand in a puddle of blood. It looked like it was melting wax.

"Well this can't be good," he assessed as the ear in his hand quickly turned to much and blood flowed down the side of his head. "- _Bluurrghg-!"_

Suddenly he cupped his mouth with his right hand as Garmadon gave a dreadful cough. Keeling over onto his knees, blood sprayed from between his fingers with another gurgled cough.

"Aarrggh!" everyone screamed at the sudden action.

"Wh-what's going on?" Aurita stuttered as both she and Laurissa knelt down next to him. "Is this supposed to happen?"

At this point, Garmadons' hair and the skin on his arm began looking like melting wax too. Even the metal arm resembled playdough.

"[Middle cure wounds]," Thousand Leagues chanted. "I don't know, this is a first for both of us."

As a pair of green circles in one another spun into action before her outstretched hands, Garmadons' body was enveloped in green light. But instead of healing him, the action seemed to accelerate his deterioration. His right arm and lumps of abdomen flesh melted off with a splat, followed by his stomach slipping out as a fleshy bag.

"I…..i….it's rejecting me- _cough_."

"What do you mean it's rejecting you-?"

 _Krooom!_

Suddenly the building they were on violently trembled, shacking everyone off balance. Laurissa peeked over the edge.

At the base of the building where a door should be, stood a heap of dark, short-cut fur with toned muscle. It pulled back with rocks breaking as it did, a bull's head looked up.

It snarled upon seeing the pink haired girl and then burrowed deeper into the building.

"A minotaur's burrowing into the building. It won't hold," she addressed, turning back to the trio.

Garmadon was now but an almost completely melted candle at this point. His face was half drooping and half missing as he tried to stable himself with his remaining arm. The other two were trying to support him but the force they applied ended up pushing more flesh off him.

"….dd..don't thi…nk I'm…dguone..," he gurgled before every vein under his skin suddenly exploded, leaving a maze of dripping vines all over him. With his mouth agape and filled with blood, he lifelessly keeled over face first onto the tiled roof with a solid _splat_ before melting away completely in a pool of red, white and silver.

 **Alex's Abilities:**

Much like Garmadon(James), Alex possess a ruby shard within his heart that has an almost identical ability of molecule manipulation. Unlike the other though, this shard enables its user to manipulate a far superior area with greater force, though as a drawback it can't affect molecules on the quantum level. This results in him being able to create massive phenomena of fire and ice, but not lightning.

Alex's healing, speed and strength are also biproducts of the shard's ability to manipulate molecules by supplying energy to his own cells, accelerating them and his rate of healing. With the superior force exerted, Alex is both faster and stronger than Garmadon.

The fact that his shard stimulates his cells increases his mental processing and kinetic vision, though he's unable to perceive lightning fast speeds the same as his brother.

Another ability he has is one that's opposite to Gamadons. By closing an eye he can see through the eyes of any living thing he's touched in the past, he doesn't even need to be near them to see. And yes, if he closes both eyes he can see through two separate beings.

His main ability is what one would consider as a terrifying piece of magic. He's able to duplicate and merge souls, by duplicating and merging his own soul with another, the victim will be completely subjugated by it. In case any are wondering, all those affected by this share the same emotional pattern as the original, but they don't share a collective mind. This has also been done with Shredder.

In addition of merging souls with other souls, he can infuse magic into duplicated souls to give them temporary physical form. In other words, he can create clones of an individual by using their souls as the base. However, these clones are temporary and will diminish after a period of time. They cannot merge with other souls while in physical form.

 **Shredder's abilities**

Shredder is an animal created by Vosdulite based on Alex's fictional character he made. Originally, he had no will of his own until Alex fused his soul with Shredders'.

Shredder has two forms, one where he's a small fluffy fox-like creature, while the other is a vicious beast resembling a saber-tooth tiger and is much stronger and faster.

His main ability is animal control. If it has low enough intelligence, Shredder can manipulate it like puppeteer with its puppet. Normally, he can spread his influence in a couple mile radius, but it can be amplified by using animals he bites under his influence as antenna. By biting an animal, he can increase his rate of control on them, which is why he could control Hamsuke before. The drawback is that his control can only work on _animals_ in the first place.


	14. Chapter 14

**I know it's late but….HAPPY NEW YEAR! XD**

 **Okay everybody, I've read the comments and I have to agree on something that some of you are thinking. I feel like Thousand Leagues Astrologer and Garmadon should ship it in my personal opinion. The more I write this story with characters mentioned in the series but have not yet been given sustenance makes me fall in love with them more and more.**

 **I don't know how, or if it's even going to happen, but I'm going to see if I can ship those two by this stories conclusion. No promises though, I've never written a love piece before, even in school, so I might screw it up a bit.**

 **But without further ado, here's the next chapter.**

 **Chapter 14**

 **Great Tomb of Nazarick**

"Do you think this _pleases_ me? Well do YOU?!" Ainz announced angrily in his chair. His head rested in his right palm with his ring and middle finger a top and bottom of his right socket. "Well I'm waiting, what do you have to say for yourself?"

He angrily tapped the arm of his chair to the rhythm of the grandfather clock ticking away in the room with a bone finger.

"…I seriously doubt this will work~," he groaned, stopping his tapping and starring at his own reflection in the tall wide mirror standing opposite him. "The only time I'd use this is if it's totally serious, and I feel uneasy doing this."

Getting up, Ainz moved his chair in an exhausted manner back into its proper position by a nearby coffee table. He'd been in his room for a while practicing poses for certain scenarios involving times where he'd have to react to an unfamiliar situation.

In his past world he was a simple 9 to 5 office worker, sitting in front of a holographic computer screen. He'd given speeches before his time as a true skeleton, but only to people who he could crack a jock with after finding out their sister's voicing an 'R' rated game they bought with blue balls.

'Hhaaaa, good times Peroronchino, good times~.'

When it came to giving speeches on the throne to everyone he'd been relying on that weird… calming force to make him think rationally. In truth, it's saved Ainz so many times it's ridiculous.

Though recently, when he addressed someone other than an NPC of Nazarick in said tomb as the overlord everyone sees him as, Ainz had a little trouble constantly keeping his emotions intact. He almost outright killed the guy….twice.

'I'm grateful for the wake-up call Garmadon gave me, but I really need to focus on the efforts made to uncover the full reason why the animals in Nazarick went berserk,' he thought, gripping the chair at remembering the trouble it took to subdue them without resorting to killing. 'Ahh, so many things so little time. At least I don't need to spend it on sleeping~.'

Earlier, most of the beasts that had weak magical resistance and intelligence under Mare and Aura's care, along with most that weren't went on a rampage in Nazarick. It was soon discovered they were under some form of mind control, the same Hamsuke and the basilisk were under. Though the caster wasn't found to be anywhere near the tomb.

At first he believed it to be the doing of a [World Item], there are those with the ability to make animals one's own allies within a set range. But since he was able to dispel all the affects with 5th tier magic it was chopped up to be highly unlikely.

 _Dong~…..Dong~…..Dong~….._

Suddenly the grandfather clock, standing tall with a bronze pendulum swinging behind decorated glass rung loudly, signalling it to be 4'oclock.

"Alright then~, time to get back to work," he declared, patting down his pitch-black robes and making sure his golden neck brace was symmetrical with his ribcage before making his way through the bedroom's wooden double doors.

He entered a largely long room on the opposite side with balconies on either side supported by marble pillars. Made entirely of the earth material, the room was lined with ocean blue carpets and fresh green ferns growing from gardens on the sides of balconies. In the centre rested a long coffee table with lavish couches on either side made of fashioned spruce wood and lined with dark purple cushions for back rests and the seating area itself.

At one end of the room where he'd entered sat a wide desk made of dark wood with a large chair behind it elegantly carved from spruce wood. Lined with scarlet cushioning on its armrests, backrest and the seating area, it was something fit for high royalty.

Next to it, bowing with her eyes closed was albedo. Her long raven hair flowed over her shoulders and a bit in front of the face with pale horns protruding from amongst it. Normally a hairstyle like that would be considered messy, but it suited the succubus guardian as if it were something exclusive only to her.

In the eyes of most it just made her seem that more attractive.

"Greetings, Lord Ainz. I hope you rested well~," she cooed as Ainz took his cushioned seat.

"Evening Albedo, I did rest quite well, thankyou."

'Well I would have if I wasn't undead or stressing out~. Actually, I think tea is a great way to calm the mind…..but it'll just go through my bones without me being able to even taste it,' Ainz's eyes dulled slightly at his despair. 'But what about a bath? That might work…'

"~ You would've rested more soundly with me~," Albedo cooed, pulling Ainz out of his internal thoughts to see her straightening up with a blush, a seductive smile on her face with her hip-wings ruffling heavily as if they were trying to cool her down. Clearly, she was imagining a 'what if' scenario. Doesn't take a genius to find out what.

"Y-yes, you're right….. I probably would've," he stuttered in surprise as he looked on trying to find the rest of his sentence.

'Actually, traditionally it's a relaxing custom for a man to rest his head on a women's lap,' he thought, remembering that although he lived a moderate life before he never relaxed in the comforting embrace of another women… except his mother, but that's not the point. 'No-no, get that dirty thought out of your head fool! You may have tampered with her programming before as a joke but that's no excuse to take advantage of your friend's creation, no matter how she may think-.'

 _Knock-knock._

Before the situation could escalate there was a knock from the door at the other end. Albedo glared at the door as if it were something repulsive, like a human, before taking a breath and returning to her mature demeanour with a smile.

"Enter."

The double doors were opened from the other side by a pair of long blonde-haired maids walking beside them to let a tall figure pass through. He was dressed in an orange and white striped suit with a metal spiked tip tail swaying behind him with each stride.

"Demiurge, excellent timing," Ainz welcomed, internally thanking his arrival. "Tell me, how goes the investigations and preparations for the lizardmen operation?"

With a small stack of papers held in one hand, Demiurge's diamond eyes flickered first to Ainz, to Albedo then back to Ainz. "Did I interrupt something, My Lord?" he asked, stopping a metre from his desk.

Albedo's eyes flared seductively as the fantasizing smile returned. She giggled a little as her golden cat-like eyes rolled towards Ainz. The very action startled Ainz for a moment, even though he's undead and this was probably the third time it's happened today. Dunno, he stopped counting ages ago after it became a daily thing, but it got him every time…...

"Oh-er…No-no, it's quite alright," Ainz assured, raising a hand as though to stop the weirdness. " _cough_ (not a real cough)... back to matters…"

"Yes Lord," Demiurge gave a brief bow. Albedo had calmed down a little but still had a flicker in her eyes. "The preparations for the lizardmen operation are almost complete with Gargantua on standby. We shall send the wraiths to deliver the announcements to the appropriate tribes in the morning when they are more active. As appropriate for cold-blooded reptiles."

"Excellent, if progress is on schedule as you say it is then we can focus a little on other matters. Speaking of …"

"Of course," Demiurge holding up the papers in front of him as though ready to read out a speech. "After extensive research and magic back tracing we've discovered that the mind control only affected low minded animals and was coming from several sources inside Nazarick. All of which were amongst the pets Aura took a liking too from outside the tomb during one of her assignments. One is in a magic sealing barrier while the rest have been exterminated, but the back-tracing magic showed they too were under the influence of another source from outside the tomb."

"Interesting, so the puppeteers were puppets for the real puppeteer," Ainz mulled, stroking his bone jaw as though it were a grown beard.

'It's like a computer hacker bouncing their signal across the world to hide their tracks,' Ainz thought, flashing to all the times he saw the spell in affect. Then he remembered the wyvern after releasing Hamsuke from the spell, raising a bone finger from his stroking hand at an idea. 'The spell could run both ways, meaning that the caster could see through the eyes of the animals. A spell like that did exist in Yggdrasil, [Eyes of nature] it was called, a 4th tier spell druids specialized in.'

"Demiurge, do you think it could be an Yggdrasil player who's responsible. After all, if they were able to infiltrate us through Aura's collection, then they most likely know of us."

'It could very well be the same ones who attacked Shalltear.'

"That is indeed a possibility, My Lord," he replied, pushing up his spectacles. "But if I may be frank, there is another possibility, and we've met him first hand."

"Hmm…ah-yes, Garmadon would be a potential suspect. But he displayed no power of controlling others and is close under our watch."

"Yes, but what if he wasn't the only one to hail from this…'control dimension', and he either refused to tell us or just didn't know?"

Ainz's eyes lit up at the idea. It was totally feasible, insane in a way but not a total stretch considering everything else.

"Albedo, I want you to assemble a party with those specialized in stealth and back tracing magic. I want this individual found and identified by using the one animal we have left that's still affected by the mind control. What is it, anyway?" Ainz queried, turning to Demiurge.

"A type of griffon, same size as one but has the wings of a bat, the head of a wolf and the body of a lion."

"I want that beast to serve as their guide," Albedo bowed at the order. "Demiurge, get the team you have watching Garmadon to relay any characters he's interacted with that either recognise him or share knowledge of us."

"Lord."

'Oooh, this is a little bit much,' Ainz thought, as Albedo and Demiurge started talking through [message] while the lights in his sockets glowed dimly. 'As much as I don't want to, I'll need to consult this with Garmadon, assuming he isn't working with the puppeteer. We'll see if this played out in the 'anime' he watched, but he probably won't give a straight answer-.'

"Lord Ainz, one of the scouting teams for the lizardmen have just reported back," Demiurge said, interrupting Ainz's train of thought. "There seems to have been a crises."

"..A crises?.."

Before Demiurge could answer, he held his ear once again for another incoming [message].

"…And the recognisance team watching Garmadon, have just reported that the human is…..dead."

 **Interlude; Slane Theocracy, Harold**

It was absolute chaos. Without any warning, earth eaters had burst through several locations around Daigel, allowing battalions of beasts and animals to seep into the town.

Harold's plan to spread soldiers throughout before-hand had saved countless corpses from piling up and with the help of the guards, attempted an evacuation of what civilians they could save. Problem was, was that majority of the guards stationed on the walls had been petrified by basilisks that came out of the nearby forest or flat out slaughtered.

Once all was done, the beasts left over remained outside the walls, ignoring the defensive spikes jutting from the soil to keep everyone in.

The sheer magnitude of this force gave them no choice but to escort everyone into the underground sewage system and try and hunker down until reinforcements arrived. Though more than a few nobles of the area were less than compliant about hiding in the sewage and dirtying their clothes. That was until a half dried out python almost ate one of their faces off before being split down the middle by one of the accompanying guards.

Out the front of one such openings, evacuations were still underway with crowds of dozens of human civilians, young, old, male and female forced to go in single file.

"Everyone, please calmly move in a single file. The gate can't take two!" a guard was yelling by the entrance while waving his hands around to get everyone's attention. "Hey you, no pushing!"

Coupled with the monsters they fended off, it was all the guards could do to keep the people from going into an uncontrollable panic.

"How we doing so far, Harold-dya!?" Nicoli grunted as he skewered a wolf with his sword that leapt at him before using his long shield that went down to his ankles to pry it off. He was clad in a full set of silver armour with a red feather pocking from the rear of his helmet like a pony tail.

"[Hunters intuition]. We've had five of the six parties return with civ-hah!" he stomped at a venomous snake trying to slither between his feet. "[Impregnable fortress]."

Using both swords, Harold blocked a minotaur's fist from crushing him below with his body hardening and jolting slightly from the force. But it wasn't done as it jabbed its other fist into his gut.

" _Pluuugh!"_

The punch was cushioned by the martial arts, but it still packed enough force to make it feel like his chest would cave.

"[Flow acceleration]," he heavily breathed.

Pushing the fists off, Harold suddenly spun into a whirling tornado of silver and sparkles as cuts all over the front side of the minotaur appeared everywhere until it was cut short by a slashing beheading.

"Huh~dam, these things just keep comin- _cough_!" dropping to one knee while holding his chest, he stole a glance at their meagre defences.

In the short time they had, their group had set up 18 wooden walls with quick wood work and magic to bunker down, encircling the entrance. Reinforced with magic, spears protruded from the sides to keep the beasts from sliding in while mages used ranged attacks to take out those coming in over the top or healed the ones at the front. One of which was currently healing Harold's pounded guts.

There was the option of erecting a wall of stone around them using the mages, but doing so would seal off those who were still alive and turning against its people is NOT what the Slane Theocracy stands for.

A handful of brave souls stood before each of these barricades to defend from frontal charges. With their backs literally against the wall, all they could do was fight for their lives.

"How long till those reinforcements arrive?" he asked, feeling the strength once more to stand on his feet with only a slight ache in his chest.

"It's been about four hours since the messenger was sent. If we can hold out just a little longer, pray to the gods they'll make it within the hour-."

"BwAAAHAHA-HAHAHAHA~," Haltosis bellowed in front of his barrack, swinging a Warhammer around and smooshing some poor critter with each slam and the cracking of bones underneath.

His usual hefting axe was still useless, so as a replacement they got him the biggest hand weapon they had with the same head weight. A steel war hammer with a large block styled head was acting as the best replacement.

Five centipede monsters with human torsos and fungi coloured nails like claws dripping with hissing poison rushed him.

"[Flow acceleration], coupled with [heavy strike] and [stamina stability]," he chanted, the martial arts taking affect and in an instant all the centipede monsters were mushed by a flurry of hammer strikes. "Haah-haha~! Oh, don't worry. I've still got something for you."

'I can certainly leave him in his element,' Harold mused as the ground was scorched by the mashed humanoid centipede's poisons. 'But I wonder how much we can keep this up, if I take a few more hits like that one before without ample time to recover I'm as good as dead.'

"Sixth group returnin-dargdgdg~," a soldier gurgled as a dozen squirrels with dripping saliva and crimson eyes leaped at him, popping off his helmet after burrowing under it and striking at his face. Some went down his throat, eating him from the inside out and ending up under his chainmail before he slumped to the ground lifeless.

The things looked like they had rabies!

Down one of the less packed streets of monsters shuffled one of the returning parties of three mages and two close combat soldiers packed with half a dozen or so visible people. The mages had erected a blue pyramid barrier around the group which kept monsters at bay.

Though the monsters were smart and specifically struck the peak more than the sides. A couple times the top broke off like glass and the combat soldiers and to fend them off until the barrier fully grew back.

But it proved to be futile as a sudden flock of at least half a dozen harpies swooped from the sky seamlessly out of nowhere and the moment the peak was broken again bombed strait in like nobody's business. With the heads and bodies of females, they filled up the inside of the barrier quickly and forced the casters to lose concentration on maintaining the pyramid.

Everyone could only watch in horror as in an instant the barrier shattered like painted glass and all the monsters around them flooded in.

Coupled by the gurgling screams of anguish, blood belched out like a fountain and spraying all over the place with limbs tossed aside like parts of a doll.

"No…"

"HALT ALL!" someone bellowed from far across the sea of monsters. It was a compelling voice as though amplified by the echoes of a cave.

Completely on que, everything from the harpies in flight, the wolves on the prowl and rats eating corpses, all froze. Harold, Halitosis, Nicoli, everyone with and behind them all froze as well at the sudden command being followed and how earie quiet it had become.

Slowly the monsters all shuffled/slithered back to a clear pathway from the evacuation point to where the party had been. Amidst a bloody mess of mangled flesh and dripping limbs huddled a grown woman with long chestnut hair died in red. Even with the hair covering it, it was clear she had deep running gashes all over her body, even her back as she cuddled something, protecting it.

As though it were in slow motion, she fell, slumping into the pile of gore with a marshy squish revealing a small child with her arms hugging herself so tightly her forearms had gone pale. She looked like she was only 10 with tears running out a traumatised face while she jolted with each pant.

"She's alive," Nicoli breathed, about to make a run to her but was stopped by Harold with one of his swords crossing his path. "What are you doing, Harold? She's a survivor, we need to get her-!"

"Not without a plan," he protested. "We'd be running into hostile territory, and who do you think yelled just then? We will get her, but not alone."

Even with the helmet on, it was obvious Nicoli had a little trouble swallowing his impulse to run forward. But after weighing the pros and cons he relaxed himself a little but remained tense.

"Alright, then let us and a few other guards come with us."

Harold nodded in agreement.

"I think it's already covered," Halitosis spoke up, slumping up from behind with his bloody dripping war hammer held low in both hands, ready to counter strike.

Everyone looked down the pathway to the girl and saw a pair of men dawned in military Theocracy magic caster armoured robes coming out from the monstrous crowd. They both strolled up to the girl, one knelt down to her, taking a glove off before resting the hand on her dirty purple hair.

Still traumatized, the gesture shocked her, snapping round at the soldier at the touch. He said some things that couldn't be heard from so far away before he whipped the tears from her eyes and continued to pet her head. But this just made the poor girl explode back into crying with her face buried in her hands.

The kneeling soldier moved in and embraced her before getting back up with the girl cradled in his arms. They both made their way to the evacuation point, with all the beasts watching them with a mix of tamed hunger and recognition.

"….Well done," Nicoli breathed in relief to the casters as they came up to them. "I-."

Before continuing, the other caster raised a hand to stop him.

"Please don't congratulate us," he said, Harold's ears snapped at his voice. "For we are simply believers in the one true god of all, our father in heaven and thus we've been chosen to live."

"…. _Excuse_ me?!"

Harold pointed a blood-stained sword at the magic caster's head.

"I'd hold my tongue if I were you," he spat. "Don't go spouting that Christianity tripe in the kingdom of the gods. You were the one who ordered the beasts to stop, weren't you?"

The Christianity religion wasn't at all favoured in the Slane Theocracy, despite this though it's proper etiquette to teach children many topics during their upbringing. But when it came to religion, only the surface of others are taught.

Suddenly the ground began shacking violently, and a humongous pillar of vines exploded from the ceiling of the nearby church before sprouting two ways out either side. It was a giant cross and it was…..being coloured? Flowers bloomed all over it, colouring the towering monolith in a variety of colours like a rainbow.

"That I am," he began before yelling over to the crowd who were still in shock. "And if you all want to survive, you'll will pray to our father in heaven, those who do shall be sparred-!"

He raised a hand, ready to snap his fingers on a command.

"-AH…MEN-!"

 _Ddtg-fgh_

In a sudden flash of blue and pink, the casters' head rolled off backwards before squirting blood like a champagne bottle. Kneeling in front of him with her estoc outstretched after the swing was Laurissa. She spun round to stab the other one in the head, making sure to avoid hitting the girl in his arms.

"[Aura armour]."

A bright brown glow with a triangular pattern surrounded the caster and Laurissa's strike ricocheted off, but the force managed to knock his helmet off. The action surprised him a bit, clutching his face while still holding onto the girl.

But Laurissa wouldn't have it and struck again at his arm holding her. With his concentration split the casters armour shattered allowing the blade to run through its target, forcing him to release the girl.

In mid-air, Laurissa retracted the blade and caught the falling girl before jumping back next to Harold who stood a little surprised.

"..Why you little….," the caster hissed with anger with a glowing blue eye glaring through his fingers.

"Everyone, please continue evacuating underground for your own safety!" Nicoli Howled, getting everyone back into reality.

As the remaining half dozen people outside the gate made their way in, Laurissa and Aurita came leaping from the nearby roof tops and landing next to everyone else.

"What took you all so long?" Harold asked.

"Sorry, we got held up big time," Aurita answered, turning to the rogue Theocracy magic caster with a drawn sword.

"Yet you've arrived in time for all your funerals!" the caster yelled, raising a hand ready to snap his fingers this time. "May god grant you pardon in peace for I shan't,-."

 _Snap_

"Ahmen!"

It was a mad rush, suddenly all the beasts that've been on standby suddenly rushed in like crazy. Everyone braced their ground, even Laurissa with the child-.

"AaaRRghgh!" Thousand Leagues was screaming her head off while she made a bolt for the gate. There weren't any more civilians going in through it, and seeing as they didn't need to buy any more time everyone, even Halitosis saw that that was the better choice.

While everyone ran, Harold sheathed his twin swords then grabbed one of the wooden barracks and broke off a plank. As they all got through the gate, Halitosis slammed it shut with a loud clang. Just before an oncoming wolf slammed its weight against the bars, Harold wedge the plank against the floor and the gate.

A boar slammed into it next, the gate held as it slumped to the ground with the wolf but was quickly followed up by everything else. The force bent the gate inwards, snapping the plank at the middle proving to be effectively useless.

"What did you think that was going to accomplish?" Halitosis asked.

"I was being optimistic," he sped.

A pair of mages moved up from behind them and took casting stances with their feet apart.

"[Crystal wall]," at their chant, a pale glittering wall erupted in front of the gate and another in front of the first in the tunnel.

"That should hold them off for a bit," one of them said.

The pounding went on and cracks snacked on the wall with each.

"Maybe we should go in further," Thousand Leagues remarked.

As they went down a narrow corridor to a mass of drifting murmurs, where the civilians were, Harold turned to Thousand leagues behind her.

"How'd you know those two caster weren't on our side before? Does this have something to do with why you all left without a word?"

"We left because we wanted to show Garmadon the town and try and get him onto our side," Thousand Leagues answered, falling behind on account of not being very athletic. "[Levitate]," she quickly rose off her feet and began flying through the air above everyone else. "It somewhat worked, after running into his brother he agreed to help us to some extent, so I'd say it was a success."

"He has a _brother_ here in the Slane Theocracy?" Harold said surprised. "Speaking of which, where is that patronizing heretic?"

At the question, Thousand Leagues face went grim, everyone slowed down to a walking pace upon coming up to a large circular stone cavern with dozens of people inside and eight other passages around the outside. The room was lit up by blazing torches lined across the wall, and though being part of the sewage the smell of waste was ever present, but not too potent.

Thousand Leagues floated down landing next to Harold, deactivating her [levitation] spell.

"That's just it, after we found out the brother is behind this attack we tried to make our escape but Garmadon…..melted to death along the way," she said, her face turning sickening at remembering the blood and organs she saw melt before her eyes.

She almost threw up.

"But the scariest thing we learnt was that the brother, Alex, has the ability to effectively brain wash anybody he wants just by touching them."

"He can do what?! That power shouldn't be possible."

'It actually is possible,' Thousand leagues thought. 'The Black Scripture has the secret power of the gods; [Downfall of Castle and Country]. But he doesn't need to know that.'

"…"

"…..…"

"Then we've failed our assignment," Harold breathed lightly, but he showed hardly any expressions of emotional grief. He didn't even look that sad. "If his body was still intact, [resurrection] magic could've been cast on him in the capital. Oh well, never liked the kid from the moment we first met him. One less problem for the Theocracy."

At that remark, Harold went over to the passage they'd just come from where a group of mages stood by casting more crystal barricades down the hallway and swapping out with other casters who used reinforcement magic on them. It was a good idea in terms of defence and magic reservation.

"Excuse me?" Thousand Leagues said, grabbing his shoulder. "What do you mean 'problem for the Theocracy'? I know he bad mouthed our kingdom a few times, but he did change in the end. He said so himself that he was going to help us-."

"And you believed him? Seriously Thousand Leagues Astrologer you need to open your eyes more and see that not everybody is as straight forward as the Black Scripture that you're always surrounded by. People have good and cruel sides, or don't you remember what Clementine did?"

Thousand Leagues cringed slightly in disgust at the mention of the women's name again.

"You need to see the bigger picture and understand that not everybody believes in the same ideals we do."

"So we just kill everybody who doesn't agree with us, or think the same way we do?"

"…If it comes to that then yes. The needs of the many out way the needs of the few. Right now and forever more humanity is that many."

"Even if the few are also humans."

Harold just stared at her with a stoic expression, which was all the answering she needed. While she stood completely dumbfounded, Laurissa came by still hugging the young girl who was now hugging her back.

"Hey," she spoke up.

"…..You can't be serious," Thousand Leagues breathed, clearly ignoring the pink haired girl and completely infixed with her argument against the silver haired Clear Water scripture member

"Hey!" Laurissa said louder.

"What!" they both said in unison.

"Listen~," she pointed to the mossy stone ceiling.

Everyone went silent, except say for literally everyone else in the room and the rumbling of the beasts above ground. Very faintly, a vibrating rhythm was beating the air and was getting louder very quickly.

As though it ran right up to them, the sounds of hundreds of slicing blades drummed the air. It was coming from outside, but the tunnelled environment bounced the sound off everywhere, forcing everyone to plug their ears to the dreadful racket with fear of their ears exploding.

The rumbling of beasts above died down a bit but was quickly added by another racket.

 _Badadadadadada~!_

Even with her ears plugged, Thousand Leagues recognised the sound. It was the same made by the weapons Garmadon wielded before shooting Laurissa in the leg, but it was like hundreds were going off at the same time. She remembered he called them 'guns'.

A tremor boomed through the area and dust sprinkled down from the ceiling. The three of them looked up and saw that an area in the ceiling above had been cracked.

"I can't take this anymore!" one of the guards near them yelled, tearing his helmet off clanking to the ground and trying to block out the sound while stumbling over himself.

Suddenly a louder explosion sounded followed by the guns stopping and the air cutting blades became erratic, growing louder. Just as it sounded like it was right on top of them, the same guard accidently bumped into the four of them still clutching his head in pain.

The roof above caved in, but it wasn't they who were in the way, the guard that pushed them was immediately caught underneath the rubble. Blood splatting from underneath as the sound of metal grinding against stone echoed throughout the room, like a wheel running over a tomato.

Atop the rubble was a long rectangular object wider than a bar table reaching all the way out past the hole and was painted bright red one side while the other had a large curved glass pane open and half shattered. Under the glass inside the cone was a black leather seat with hundreds of glowing lights.

The air cutting sound was more clear but just about dead coming from the machine in front of them. Then quickly as it had appeared, the object disappeared into a small vortex of blue pixels numbering in the millions.

"…It can't be-," Thousand Leagues murmured.

 _Booom!_

 _NunnngnungnungnungNARRRRNNNGGGG!_

 _Gagggrrrrrghh…._

She was suddenly cut off by a series of explosions, and now something like metal chains wiring at high speeds ripping into hardened flesh.

"ArrghhGH-haha! Fear meeee~-HAHAHAAA!" someone bellowed outside. "Get over here basilisk, I'll show you what's means to be _stoned_!"

Everyone underground was now trembling, even the nobles, one of whom stumbled from the crowd with trembling lips and snot coming from his nose. Looking to be in his late 40s', he was a little on the chubby side with black hair topping with a sickly twirl just above his forehead.

"…D-do something, save me~!" he slurred, grabbing on to Harold's armour and literally dragging him down with his own weight. "I have money, I can pay you handsomely. Get out there, do something~."

As the rumbling went on a minotaur fell through the hole in the ceiling and crunched onto the rubble, squirting up some blood. But this time it didn't have the same insanely wild look it had before, instead it was terrified. Attempting a frantic scramble, a hooked kunai on chain snaked after it and skewered into the minotaur's back before being pulled taught.

The minotaur gripped onto the ground with all its might.

"Don't think you're gonna get off that easily, brute," the voice came again from above. The chain was being pulled tighter now, the minotaur was gripping on but a chunk of its back where the kunai was hooked began tearing and bleeding.

In the next moment a chunk of its spine hooked by the kunai was pulled out strung in dripping veins. The minitour howled in pain, its cries echoing throughout the room before its grip weakened and was hoisted back out the hole like a fish being reeled in.

"It looks like someone's got it covered up there, sir," Harold remarked, taking the sobbing nobles hands of him. "Please go back with the rest of the people."

"I need to see what's going on. [Remote view; medium range]," Thousand Leagues chanted covering her eyes with her palms.

The [remote viewing] spell is a 3rd tier spell that enables the caster to view the space around them, regardless of physical walls. The spell itself maxes out at 100 metres, but if Thousand Leagues uses her red liquid she can amplify it to 2 kilometres.

The sound of flesh being torn to shreds came, blood rained from the hole and the minitour's head tumbled back in. That just made onlookers even more scared as they all tried huddling together away from the dead-eyed drooling bull head.

"You think it's the reinforcements?" Nicoli asked, coming up to Harold.

"Seriously doubt it," he answered, listening intently to the rumbles then looking at Thousand Leagues. Even with her hands covering her eyes, the expression she gave just made him think the possibility was even more plausible. "But if it's who I think it is we might not need those reinforcements."

Soon the tremors, the explosions, howling's and fighting topside calmed and all that could be heard were a few frightened murmurs amongst the room.

"….What's it looking like up there~?" Halitosis whispered to Thousand Leagues, the almost eerie silence getting to even him.

 _Duhg._

At the sound of stone breaking, everyone looked up to see an icicle poking through the ceiling. Clear as pure water, a streak of blood ran down it before dripping off the tip like a stalactite from a cave.

Thousand Leagues slowly removed her hands from her face with a shocked expression. It was like she was almost traumatized by what she saw with her spell.

"It's clear, all the monsters are dead~," she monotoned.

It was a little bit concerning, the look she gave and the way she said it. But regardless, the coast had been cleared so after Laurissa left the frightened girl with a couple, the six of them and a few guardsmen ascended out the hole in the ceiling. Most climbed while Thousand Leagues lazily floated by them like a bubble causing Harold to scoff slightly at how she was cheating her way up.

When they all got to the top, the surrounding area was an absolute disaster zone. Every building in the nearby vicinity laid in absolute ruin with thick plumes of smoke rising from littered fires. Along with impaling icicles of all sizes and frozen areas, the bloodied corpses of boars, bears, wolves, minitours, humanoid centipedes and countless other varieties of beasts laid strewn everywhere.

The giant cross that'd grown from the church was now ablaze and crumbling to ash. A member broke off and crashed into the earth, kicking up clouds of dust and smoke as it laid to rest with another quacking thump.

"Wow, this is certainly something," Halitosis marvelled in awe. "Anyone have any ideas on what could do this?"

"I have a few ideas," Laurissa said, letting out a little excitement out in her voice before pointing to a pile of corpses. "But one comes to mind right now."

Standing atop the corpse pile, left leg and right arm gleaming metallically stood a heavily breathing teenager. He was dressed in blue chequered shorts and a grey shirt.

In his left hand he held the weapon he called a 'shotgun', in the other was an orange box with a thick blade wrapped by a toothed chain along its edge protruding from one side of it. Both were smeared in blood, but the bladed box was chugging away in his hand as though it were alive.

After they spoke, Garmadon turned to them with a lightly exhausted look on his face. His right eye was leaking blood, but he was clearly happy, giving a cheesy grin of delight and dropping his gun to give a thumbs-up.

"I-impossible," Harold stuttered, utterly shocked by the surrounding gore everywhere and the lone giggling kid. There were well over two thousand to begin with…..what the hell happened?!

Suddenly from amongst a hill of corpses to Garmadons side, a basilisk erupted from it, howling in both agony and anger. Its eyes had been gouged out leaving bloodied sockets, it was missing five of its eight legs and along with deep slash marks across the entirety of its body its bottom jaw was completely missing.

"JjjjjjjyaaARRGH!"

As though on que, a screaming warrior fell from the sky and completely pounded into the overgrown reptile's skull with a long-handled mace, killing the beast instantly. Normally something traveling that fast would've gone splat too, but before contact he'd used martial arts [boost] and [impregnable fortress] to cancel the impact recoil done to his own body.

It was a surprise to everybody, but after un-wedging the spiked mace he explained that he was part of the Holocaust Scripture. Halitosis knew him, and it was laid out that the entire scripture that'd arrived will assist in clearing out the remaining monster invading the town.

Not that there were any still left alive.

Turns out, Garmadon had been trying to find Thousand Leagues and the rest with an x-ray aspect his eye had. Meanwhile, unexaggeratedly butchering every single monster he came across. Most had been diced, some exploded, frozen, burnt, impaled and few so horrifically turned inside-out it frightened them to even think about the method.

It took longer than was necessary, but everyone found it easier to breath with the lack of impending doom bearing down on them. Because of that, the rest of the evening soundly ticked by, despite the disappointed reinforcements that'd shown up.

After a full sweep with the help of Thousand Leagues Astrologers surveillance magic, the officials declared the town to be safe. Completely bloody and in ruins, but safe. Surprisingly, Thousand Leagues couldn't find Alex anywhere during her search, which was concerning.

But turning from one missing brother to another, Thousand Leagues pounded Garmadon with questions on how the heck he was still alive after he turned into a greasy pudding puddle. He was a little hesitant at replying, probably from divulging too much info on his powers, but said it was probably better he didn't worry her.

It turns out the rejecting shard really did kill him, but once he died the melted shard merged back into him and completely regenerated himself. Downside was only his body had been restored, he was still very much dead.

Though the energy used to recreate his body had left some residue power, particularly in his brain which managed to send off some electrical signals throughout his body which set his heart, now housing the shard, on a single beat and his lungs a single inhale. Since his blood was fresh and more than oxidized his entire blood circuit flowed just once, oxidizing his brain, muscles and setting off a chain reaction effectively jumpstarting his entire body.

When he came too he was… in less than a decent state, being but naked on the tiled roof where he was left. Not only that, but his old clothes would've taken forever to clean even after being reformed. So on the flip side he made himself some new ones, common clothes from his world.

As informative as his explanation was, Thousand Leagues had to check his heart beat a few times to make sure he wasn't a reanimated zombie or anything. It would be a real issue if he was reanimated by a necromancer to be their puppet spy. Or a corpse that'll explode when it gets close enough to a cardinal. Stuff like that has happened before in the past, as ridiculous as it sounds. Most of them were mail-men.

"W-what the hell are you doing?!" he flustered, pushing Thousand leagues hands out from under his shirt.

"Thi-this is something that must be done. Now hold still while I feel your chest," she protested, shoving her hands back under his shirt to feel up his front.

"Wow, hey context. I can see Laurissa doing this, but not you!"

"Shut up!"

Feeling his chest up a bit she pressed lightly, softly feeling a warm quick paced heart-beat, followed by a light _zap_ to her fingers.

' _Dah.._ , okay this is definitely the reaction I got from the first time I held the shard, the feeling of a mass of lives…..This….is the first time I've…touched, a boy ….like this…!' she thought, blushing at the realization of what she was doing.

Faster than a martial art chop, Thousand Leagues ripped her hand right from under his shirt and clasped it low to her waist with her head staring down. The brim of her black large witch's hat blocking her view of Garmadon and his of her face.

"…."

"….."

"It's ummm… _cuh..…cuh..._ it-it's okay..~."

Daring a look from behind the safety of the brim, she saw that Garmadon was in a slight state of his own distress. Turned side on with eyes closed, a metal hand holding his chest while taking slow, deep breaths to calm himself down.

They stood there in for a few moments, the silence they were giving off just made the whole situation a little more awkward. Internally, Thousand Leagues was praying to the six gods that something, someone would break this awkward silence.

"Heh, lucky higher-ups," Thousand Leagues snapped in the direction the voice came from, a little surprised and confused. A little to her left, a pair townsfolk were passing by on either side of a charcoal furred boar corpse, holes in though its belly but not dripping as much blood as one would expect.

They both seemed to be in their late 20's, both in bloody dirty clothes but one was a slick man with short oily hair while the other was a woman with dirty blonde hair in a messy state. For them, it was grotesque enough to hide in the sewers and then clear out the entire town of corpses, beast and human alike, but seeing higherups just stand around while they did all the work was just plain insulting.

"They get to play hooky while we do all the work…. _gruh~,_ " the woman grunted as she shifted her hold on the corpse with a look of disgust. "Dam pig…."

As the pair passed by, Thousand Leagues couldn't help but feel a little down by the insult. It wasn't uncommon for officials to be hated by the people they protected, most saw them as very strict parents who'd reprimand them for misbehaving. In a metaphorical way.

 _Click-clock….chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu~._

"….daghhh…~?"

Suddenly there was series of rapid air bursts after the sound of metal clicking together before the two passers collapsed onto the ground, unmoving. An array of very small cylinders with red feathered tails were sticking out of their backs.

"Oh my go-are you okay?" Thousand Leagues panicked, rushing to one of the sprawled unconscious bodies she grabbed one of their shoulders and shook them slightly. There wasn't any response and their eyes were unresponsive. Her eyes trailed to the multitude of cylinders protruding from their back.

She moved to pluck one out and upon inspecting knew it was some kind of dart on account of the needle at one end. But this was more refined than the wooden blow darts assassins are known to sometimes use. Expensive too.

"What the-?"

"Don't worry, there not dead if that's what you're thinking," Garmadon said walking up, in his right hand, he held a gun with a large clear barrel under its belly wider than his fist housing a countless number of the needles. "They're just sleeping."

Still standing above the bodies, he went to tinker with his mechanism, clicking pieces of metal pieces that made up the gun.

"What did you do?"

"Hmm? They were bad mouthing us and complaining about being saved at the same time. Now I know what you're going to say; 'don't harm the citizens, humans must work together in order to make the world a better place'. Or something along those lines," he cocked, clicking the back of his gun forward and pointing the end at the unconscious bodies as though to gesture. "So in that regards, I hit them with a couple of tranquilizer darts. They should be awake in a few hours…."

The number of darts in both the backs were more than just a few. There were like a dozen in each of them-!

 _Chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu!_

A series of air bursts from the gun lead more darts to be sticking from the back of both the bodies. they numbered in the 20's on both backs at this point.

"…..Maybe half a day~," Garmadon corrected, grinning slightly and dropping the gun. The mechanism disappeared into blue pixels before even hitting the floor, the darts disappeared along with it, but the two remained unconscious. "Dunno, this stuff is potent enough to take down a rhino."

Since Garmadon hadn't actually harmed the pair, Thousand Leagues couldn't really hold him responsible for bodily harm this time. Unlike a certain bar fight, both were still alive, so after securing both of them outside so they weren't in any danger, Thousand Leagues and Garmadon had to help in to make up for the lost man-power.

She was not impressed.

As countless corpses continued being taken out the town to prevent an epidemic, a new issue arose. It was late in the evening, almost nightfall and nobody had any roofs to cover their heads, let alone beds to sleep in. Even the store houses merchants use had been totalled.

Just when sleeping underground was being shot down on account of attracting potential disses from all the faeces, Garmadon came by to lightly offer the entire towns restoration. And the offer really was lightly, almost like someone was painting a fence and their friend comes round to offer help.

"Why would you help us further? Let me guess, it's for your own otherworldly entertainment, right?" Thousand Leagues asked, both annoyed and a little insulted. He clearly said it himself, he only wants so save them so that they can fall to someone else, this 'Ainz' person.

The others were a little confused by her statement say for Laurissa. She knew, but because of everything else hadn't told anyone yet.

Garmadon quickly got anxious, grabbing Thousnad Leageus arm and pulling her away from the rest of the group so as to not be heard.

"Ow-ow-ow, hey you're holding me too tightly," Thousand Leagues wailed, franticly patting the mechanical hand that gripped her upper arm in a vice grip. Once they were a distance away from the others, Garmadon released his hold.

"Look, I'm sorry I blurted out in front the pub, and I'm sorry I made you think I'll help you only so I can watch you fall again. But…..until recently I thought this world was nothing more than just a figment of someone's imagination. You are real, you're all real and right now, I just want to help, not for a means to an end, but because I generally want to," he said, his voice sounding almost as genuine as the expression he was giving. "And I also stayed because…. I ….care about…..you… _guys_."

He said that last word in an oddly panicked manner, almost as if he wanted to draw attention away from something else.

 **Interlude: Garmadon**

'Holy crap, I can't believe I almost slipped up on that,' I mentally panicked. 'Calm down, calm down~ I just have to think of it asssss~ the icing on top from what I said. I mean I really do care about her-THEM, people, but at this point it doesn't really matter what I do. If I find a solution to fix this anime from the very get go then me and Alex's involvement would be erased entirely from all this. I'm just..….spinning wheels until I reach that junction and clearing my conscience along the way. Hopefully I can find out what Vosdulite is really after and get my brother back. Hea, hea, actually, it could be a fun trip~.'

 **Interlude: Thousand Leagues Astrologer**

Thousand Leagues blushed a little at his reasoning, thinking otherwise if he what he meant wasn't entirely what he said.

'What….what's this feeling in my heart? It aches a little, but I don't think it's magic at work.'

She looked at the boy's face again, who was also having an internal struggle before looking at the surroundings around her. His expression seemed similar to after she ended up fondling his chest while checking for a heart-beat. Then went ahead and shot some people….again.

"Okay, we'd appreciate all the help we can get."

Upon accepting him, a smile spread across Garmadon's lips and said he'd be needing some help, buckets and barrels of water. Lots of water.

"Do you really think we have barrels or buckets that aren't in pieces? Use your head, even if we did we wouldn't just fetch them for you," Harold hissed at the list. The guy still hated the teenagers guts.

"Well damn," Garmadon huffed, folding his arms as though going into thought. Quickly he broke his pose slapping a metallic fist into a his palm in a 'eureka' moment before shacking his hand in pain. "Aahhhh…. Okay, then what about mages that can control water and do something like make it flow like tentacles across the ground."

Gesturing with his hands he made a spider, wriggling his fingers as though its legs.

"We can, but what do you plan on doing with them?"

Garmadons face grew into a twitchy grin, giggling lightly.

" _Ngu-ngu-ngu_. The complete restoration of this entire town in a manner that would completely mess with your understanding of realityyyy~…. _guh-uh-uh-uh_ ~."

Everyone hearing the conversation got a little weirded out by this. Evil giggling plus kid that committed mass murder never really settled right with people. It took a bit of arguing, but eventually a few dozen of the surviving military casters were assembled and placed in key locations around the towns boarders with six lines of them running to the centre like some giant clock face.

The helping hands were a little sceptical when they learnt Garmadon's method didn't involve any miracles of the gods. A certain someone almost lost their marbles because of that.

"Alright, we're in position. Everyone ready? Begin!"

In a booming voice that echoed like the crowds of a rock concert.

"[Water wall]."

Normally, the [water wall] spell is used to defend against fire related onslaughts, but in this case hundreds of them were erected along the same lines as the casters acting as a giant water pentagram. The outskirts had become a swirling barrier.

"You know you don't have to be here, right?" Garmadon said in the town square, the very centre of where the walls of water converged.

"I'm afraid that's yet to be seen," Harold said, crossing his arms. "Frankly speaking you're still under our jurisdiction, and I don't care what Thousand Leagues here says, I'll be watching this with my own eyes. Why are you here anyway, you could watch this with your surveillance magic?"

"Well if you're going to be here then so am I," Thousand Leagues resented next to him. "And after what you said in the tunnel, I wouldn't be surprised if you tried to kill him."

"Oh please-."

"He said what?" Garmadon questioned in surprise. "If you wanna fight then bring it on. I'll rip you a new one while keeping you alive before turning you into a living popsicle stick with a uranium stick shovelled right up where the sun don't shine~."

He bounced on the spot while taunting with his fists.

"D-don't bother. Now hurry up, those casters don't have the magic to keep this up forever. You have about a minute or so," Harold said, a little confused by the terms Garmadon just used.

"Heh, chicken~," he mocked, walking up to the waters converging point, plunging his metal hand into the water.

Red lightning surged around his fingers before small bubbles started racing up from his palm. What he was doing was increasing the water temperature in the somewhat cold liquid and forcing it off down one of the walls. This created a current which reached out through every wall it was connected to before racing right back to the centre.

"This isn't gonna be pretty~."

Wincing slightly, Garmadon dove his other arm into the current. Red lightning surged across his other arm before coming apart at the seams. Chunks of his arm began falling off with blood leaking out before being repaired by his reaction healing.

What was happening was that Garmadon was tearing the molecules in his arm apart which made pieces of his flesh lose their hold. Since he was also tearing at the nerves in his arm, the pain he would've felt was practically non-existent, the loose pieces of flesh turned to ash.

The blood seeping out was swept away through the artificial current. In a matter of moments thin streaks of the blood came rushing back along the currents in the other walls converging at the centre around his arms.

"~Here we go~. REST-!"

Suddenly the water walls lost their form, flushing down with a splash and flooding the grounds just under ankle height. Garmadon stood their with both arms stretched out but his left was still falling to pieces and leaking blood.

"Oh….guess the casters have run out of mana-."

"Oh no you don't!" Garmadon dove into the water with thin streaks of blood still in it. "RESTORE!"

For a few seconds nothing happened, say for a couple of red sparks. Suddenly a red static pulse rushed through the waters like a drop in a pond from where he was before the whole place lit up in red lightning chasing after the pulse, running across the trails of blood.

This surprised both the scripture members and watched in absolute aw as hundreds upon thousands of wide lightning arcs were formed from the ground and the debris around them. It didn't take long for the first roof tile to shoot out the water and hang dripping in mid-air before being quickly followed by literally every other piece of rubble flying off in random directions and halting in mid-air.

It was like nothing they'd ever seen, time seemed to be rolling back with chunks of rock flying through the air as buildings were re-built without so much as a crack in their windows. Foot path blocks slid themselves into place like a giant picture puzzle.

It reminded Thousand Leagues of the rubix cube back at the Theocracy.

After a couple of minutes or so the entire town stood reassembled. Say for the splats of animal blood drifting in puddles it was almost as if there was never an attack in the first place. Garmadons blood streaks had somehow evaporated also.

"..N….no way….!"

"And that, ladies and gentlemen..," Garmadon boasted, standing tall while swaying a bit as though a little dizzy. "…Is a wrap~."

 **Interlude: Garmadon**

'Oh man I'm feeling that dizzy spell like before,' I thought as my vision filled with numerous stars for a bit from the excessive blood loss, I stopped focusing on my arms so my left had begun growing again. 'I'd hoped to avoid passing out from blood loss like before in Nazarick by diluting the blood I extracted. Guess the plus side on this is that I won't be passing out this tim—oh wait, is-is that? Nah I'm good~.'

Starring at my hand, which looked three at once, I tried focusing on it to get my bearings back.

'At this point, I should be a little more concerned about how much energy I have left in my philosopher's stone. The fight with those monsters coupled with that rebuild and my own resurrection should've cost about as much as fixing Nazarick did. But if I just make a few hundred more icicles like I did in my killing spree I should be back up to full power…I hooo-wo-pe~.'

While my vision spun like some freaky mental merry-go-round, the townsfolk moved back in. But while I did reconstruct the town on the outside, stuff like beds, dishes and chairs were still in splinters. I felt a bit bad about it, but if that did happen then quite possibly all the bodies would've been re-made as well, both humans and monsters. I haven't tried if reconstructing a dead body with my philosophers stone would bring it back to life, but sure as HELL don't want to find out now.

But hey, I wasn't the only one who could do [reconstruction] magic, though the mages who could do it ended up having…shaky results. Just how? I thought this was a kingdom of advanced magic, or are they too focused on combat magic and spells to win wars than improve businesses and lives?

Though there were several carpenters who were more than insistent on making beds with their own hands. I couldn't figure out why, but I guess it must've been a matter of pride for them. In that regard, I understood all too well with my own pride in the Lego constructs I made.

As for us, the original plan was to just pass through, but due to the recent events, that obviously wasn't the case anymore.

The six of us, including all 150 disappointed back-up Holocaust Scripture soldiers that'd come completely rented out a few whole hotels just for the night. I've honestly never seen such a migration into buildings like this before.

Since there were six of us, one room for three seemed appropriate with girls in one and boys in the other. Although when I saw the bed I'd be sleeping in tonight, I was more than a little disappointed with how it been reconstructed it was.

I mean, I know it was probably in splinters, but the whole thing looked like it was made from splinters. The legs had toothy splinters sticking out across it swiss cheese holed legs that were a bit crooked to say the least. As for the mattress, it had holes in it the size of bowls. BOWLS!

"…They cannot be serious…," I gawked at the mis-shaped bed in front of me.

"Hey it may not be ideal, but it's the best this place has to offer," Harold remarked unamused as he dropped a bag by his own bed that looked far more whole than mine, Halitosis was doing the same but also had his borrowed war hammer rested up against a wall. "We're just here to drop off our stuff and then we'll be….what are you doing?"

In the moments while he was talking, I'd moved to the opposite side of the bed and was doing a little weight lifting with it, pulling it up and down before resting it back down. "I'm testing the weight of this thing, just to see how much ' _umf_ ' I should give it."

Standing straight I planted my prosthetic left foot on the beds edge before charging my leg and blasting the bed out the wall with a _crash_. Planks tumbled everywhere as the bed flew through the air before smashing into the ground in the streets below.

"Hey, hey, hey what was that for?"

"Oh don't worry, I'll take care of the wall," I said, bracing both hands on either side of the hole. Red lightning sparked and instead of the planks below flying back up, the side I was holding onto just started growing and did so until the wall of the room was back in place. "But I just didn't like the bed they were presenting me."

"That's just cruel, the casters worked hard to remake those beds."

They really didn't. The whole thing to remake the beds was a rush job and none of them were carefully taken care off like what the carpenters did with their beds. Guess pride in ones work really does make all the difference.

"And I thank them for that, but I have an alternative that would work muuuucchhh better," walking back to where the bed was, outstretched my hand and focused on a new bed. I didn't put much thought into it when I made the Lego bed for one of my minifigures, a modern-day king-single with black steeled frame, white dressed mattress complete with a purple pillow and park blue covered duvet.

'….. _haa~_. This bed certainly won't be as comfortable as the one I rested in back in Nazarick, but it will totally beat sleeping on something that's literally full of hole,' I reminisced, materializing a knife then slicing my palm to bloody a steel leg while thinking about what I woke up to after passing out from blood loss in Nazarick. 'Hmmm, so comfy…Actually that reminds me, the guardians are thinking that Ainz is gunning for world domination. So…..what if, just hypothetically, I were to give them a little hand.'

Harold and Halitosis had both stopped showing much disgust in what I did at this point and were instead making their way to the door. We were all going to have dinner in the mess hall downstairs, I mean I don't mind having middle era food again, but how do I know there's anything to eat in the first place. As far as I know the beasts would've trampled and or eaten everything in town.

'But there is the whole 'my brother will destroy all theocracy and deliver a fatal blow to the anime'. And I don't want….some people to die just yet. Actually…..yes, YES, right after I keep Alex off the Theocracy's back this one time I'm heading straight over to Nazarick. It's a long shot, but Ainz might be able to help me put an end to all of this. That, or he'll just rage kill me. I can still imagine the guild master still being a little pissed at the one who react his guild base~.'

During my little internal monologuing, the three of us had left the room and were making our way down stairs to the mess hall through corridors, but it was pretty obvious when we were getting closer. There was laughter and chanter practically booming through the air.

Rounding a corner, we came into a bustling long room with wooden tables and chairs in ridicously long rows of four with people sitting either side. A line of food ran down the middle of each table with cauldrons and large oval wooden plates of food that were in no way mushed or leftovers.

Honestly, it was a surprise at the quantity, how fresh and crisp even the chicken looked.

It wasn't long, but we quickly found the other girls stuffing their faces with salads, roast chicken and mashed potatoes. Well, I say stuffing but it was really more elegant than that. Everyone else were the ones stuffing their faces like the food was going out of style.

I could hear soup being loudly slurped and food smacking in chops.

But I really couldn't care less, I hadn't eaten nearly anything all day and was starving so much my stomach hadn't stopped growling since smelling the roasted meals.

My philosophers stones' healing capabilities could restore any energy I've lost simply by absorbing the kinetic energy of the surrounding atoms. But it could never quench the feeling of a truly empty stomach.

Taking one of the vacant seats opposite the girls next to one the of the soldiers with Harold and Halitosis seating right of me. An empty wooden bowl laid in front of me with the three utensils next to it, also made of wood.

"No, no no no no no~," I repeatedly mumbled, staring intently my cutlery as people shovelled food from plates along the middle of the table onto their own before proceeding to devour it all. "I've never once used wooden cutlery before and I don't intend to start now."

Snatching a fork with my mechanical arm and activating my eye, I used the magnifying aspect it had to zoom in on the fork on a quantum level. Each individual atom became clear as day, though since this was wood, an organic material, it had a mixture of different elements like nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, iron and a bunch of other elements I couldn't make out right here and now.

I tried using my meagre knowledge of chemistry to remember what the chemical composition of steel was. Oh wait, but steel is a composite material, made up of other elements. As much as I wanted to practice ionic ponding to make steel with my transmutation abilities, the food was disappearing faster than the Sunlight scripture's opinion of Ainz being a meagre magic caster.

'Okay, most of these elements have a low atomic number, so I could break some of the atoms with less number of electrons and what not to make other low atomic numbered metal atoms. What else is lowww…..~ how about sodium? An atomic number of 21 so it should be good, and this fork already has traces of that element to begin with.'

Focusing on the lower level atoms I broke them apart and transferred the leftovers to the other elements until I managed to turn the top part of the fork into the rare earth material. Just as I transmuted the metal, I realized that the plated food closest to me was completely gone with bare chicken grease and crumbs of a salad and near dry soup cauldron next to it.

'How much time did I waist?' I panicked, noticing that everyone else were busy eating their own plate falls. 'Oh no, oh no, no, no-.'

Standing up and glancing around, I saw that all the other food stations were bare and the kitchen didn't look like they had the resources to make anymore. Suddenly my eyes caught a glimmer of hope in this merciless terrain. Far to the other side of the hall laid a couple of drumsticks, half a quarter of a cauldron and what I saw were two slices of bread.

"Food~."

But I wasn't the only one going for it. While I was formulating a route, I noticed Laurissa also making her way in that direction.

'But wasn't she juist….?'

I glanced as to where she was just a moment ago in my time to where she was now. She'd almost made it to the remains. Just how much time did I spend focusing on that stupid forks make-up?

"Like hell I'm starving to sleep tonight," I hissed measuring the distance of the three locations. Right now, Laurissa was but half a dozen or so feet away while I was at the other end of the hall. Easily over 20 metres with 3 tables to the fourth and people at every square inch of available seats. "No sweat."

In an instant I maxed out my eye's motion analysis and accelerated the molecules in my muscles, increasing my reactions to just about the same when I fought Albedo and Shalltear. Granted I didn't fully remember my characters abilities until near the end of my fight with Shalltear.

In the next moment everything, and I do mean everything slowed down to a drop. The hungry soldiers nearly froze with food before their mouths, tripping drinkers (in both the common senses) had the contents of their flying mugs halt mid-flight.

It was exhilarating, the charge my muscles were under had left me with practically the ability to movie in a world where time had halted. But in actuality I was approaching the speeds incomprehensible to most humans, but to a guardian it might as well be a morning jog. The two Ainz craving guardians more than proved that to me.

Climbing onto the table, I bounced onto Halitosis head, just missing the mohawk, and jumped onto the next head. After hoping from one pedestal to the next I in no time made it to the prize with Laurissa now also at the food but frozen in place.

"Eyea-hea-hea-hea, to the victor go the spoils~," I chuckled, grabbing the cauldrons deep spoon and shacking out the frozen liquid contents into the bowl. I was just about to go for some bread and chicken, but stopped when I saw Laurissa.

Her expression was as shy as it normally is, composed facial structure, thin frown and shoulders neither sagging with sorrow nor raised in excitement. But was really standing out was her eyes. I've heard eyes being windows to the soul, Laurissa's eyes looked like they were…more than a little hungry.

"….. _tch…_.dam my sentimental side~," I grunted, glancing from the food on my plate, to the one's not on my plate and the petit pink haired girl before me.

Suddenly there was a jolt through my body, not the nostalgic acceleration jolts I get from using my powers, but more of an actual muscle jolt. Next thing I knew the silence that had come with moving and perceiving the speeds I was moving at shattered with the commotion of the mess hall once again roaring to life.

"Ahh, my neck~."

"What the hell, it feels like my head just got kicked by a horse!"

The people I'd stepped on to get here started wailing in annoyance, some more than others. Guess that'd happen when a foot steps and leaps off your head at speeds more than mark 20.

'Ahh, I lost focus on my speed. Now I'm moving back at normal speeds again,' I internally complained a bit until realizing who was still in front of me.

"Oh, umm…..would you like some as well?"

After the little stunt, the pair of us managed to divide what was left of the food without much complaint, though I think Laurissa had more to say than she let on.

Now finally, the time had come! I could finally eat some food after a near entire day of absolutely nothing! Grabbing my half wooden sodium fork I shovelled it all in, savouring the juices as they seeped onto my tongue. Tearing at soup-soaked bread, roasted seasoned chicken and creamy salad.

This food was nothing compared to what I had at Nazarick, but in the face of overwhelming hunger I just didn't care. Shockingly, I even found myself gulping down a bit of halbrim beer.

Honestly, I was a little hesitant having beer again considering what happened last time. But it wasn't so bad once you drink a lot, don't focus too much on the taste and haven't eaten in ages.

Plus side no-one died with a hammer to the head this time.

Part way through I had to go take a leak, and on my way back I ran into someone that surprised me to the point where I was almost surprised to death.

"Wooh, stomach's empty. Let's go for another round," I said excitedly as a I jogged down the corridor.

"Glad to see you're having fun, Garmadon," said an all too familiarly stern voice behind me that sounded formal. I froze in shock on the spot. "If I'd known you were having this much fun, I would've asked Albedo to come and lighten the mood even more~."

Cranking around, I came face-to-face with a tall standing figure in an orange and white striped uniform. He had pointed ears with a pair diamonds sparkling behind spectacles and a metal looking scaled tail behind. A malicious grin on his face.

"Ehehe…- _cough_ -Well if it isn't Demiurge," I half laughed as I tried regaining my bearings before the floor Guardian. "Haven't seen you since-."

"-Since the meeting you had with Lord Ainz before you fought Shalltear and after completely decimating the 6th floor amphitheatre," he finished, keeping his composure while saying it but with a hint of malice in his voice. "You're right it's been too long~."

'Oh-ho-ho, he's still so pissed about that. No doubt.'

"Yea," I turned the other way down the corridor where everybody else was before turning back. "You should've really chosen a more convenient location. The people at the other end could come through at any moment, speaking of how'd you find me?"

'I know I was never being watched with a surveillance mirror Ainz uses. I would've seen it.'

"No need to concern yourself with that," he pushed back his spectacles, clearly enjoying my ignorance. I know that denizens of Nazarick tend to act that way towards beings lower than them, especially humans. "While you were busy I had a sound barrier erected around us to keep any noise from getting out and if anyone comes round, they won't be able to even see us."

I engaged my eye, feeling it hum a bit and took another look round. He was right, without a doubt there were two clear rippling walls at either end of the corridor. Not only that but both Demiurge and I were covered in an orange aura, probably an invisibility spell.

"As for how I knew, we've had eyes on you the whole time. Not that you ever noticed~," he slightly giggled, obviously enjoying this.

'Wow, he really does think of everything when it comes to strategy.'

"That's pretty impressive and all, but why are you here?" I asked, hoping to get this conversation over and done with so that I can finish the dinner I kicked people in the face for. Their reactions were hillll~arious. "I seriously doubt you're here to say hello to a friend."

"That's rich~. No, I'm here on Lord Ainz's behalf for information on a matter that you'd most likely know more about than we would in this….anime you watched."

"Alright, lay it on me."

"Is there at any point an event where Ainz concerns himself with a tribe of lizard men, and if so what happens?"

'…That's what he came to ask me about? I would've thought that plan was well under way by now, it was like the first arc of season 2. I was half expecting him to ask me if I could make an iphone for Ainz or something, but I guess he wouldn't have sent Demiurge to do that little thing…. Do iphones even exist in the 22nd century?'

"Y-Yeah. At the start Ainz sends some…wraiths… I think they're called to deliver a message to the tribes of their oncoming assault," I began. "For Ainz, it's to kill two birds with one stone. He wants to grant Cocytus the opportunity to think for himself and understand combat situations more thoroughly while experimenting with their corpses. Long story short, everything goes smoothly, Ainz rules over the lizardmen through Cocytus and Shalltear gets her punishment by being a throne for Ainz. _Hehe_ ~ that was a funny scene for everyone, especially when Albedo throws her little tantrum~."

"Hmm~, now that would've been a sight I'd love to see~," Demiurge mused quietly. "Thankyou for that bit of information. As compensation I will tell you something. The scenario you just described will never happen."

"…Wai-what, why is that?"

"Because all the Lizardmen tribes have been completely eradicated. There isn't a single one of those two-legged reptilians remaining."

"WHHAAATTT!? Why'd that happen?!"

"Hm, demanding aren't you. While we were observing the tribes all the animals and monster; snakes, average lizards, birds, leaches, insects, alligators, hydras, etcetera went berserk and attacked them. The individual tribes never stood a chance-."

'…Holy hell…Alex extended his animal control that far, and he didn't use a single one of the ones just mentioned in today's assault.'

A quick image flashed through my mind of what might've happened. Lizardmen in the marshy wetlands frantically fighting for survival while being sucked dry and falling to fleshy chunks by clinging leeches, buzzing insects and piranha acting fish.

The white lizard Crusch trying to heal the wounded while the two Shasha lizard brothers and a few warriors swiping at the waters only to eventually be eaten from behind by giant, crunchy bugs.

'Oh jeez, I gotta stop. I don't wanna up chunks right now..~.'

"-So do you have any idea on what could've caused it?"

I'm a little hesitant at answering that question, because if I did I'd have to tell him about my brother and even though I want him stopped I _really_ don't want him to meet Nazarick. He'd blow up within the first 3 seconds, come back to life then diced into chunks in the next, no matter how hard he fights.

"Well um…that's because…"

"Not wanting to answer, then allow me to~," Demiurge grinned even more. "Your brother, what was his name again…..Alex, yes that was it. Alex used his pet's abilities to control every animal in that swamp and used others to attack this town, yes I know about it. Ainz foresaw that there was a chance you'd be an issue, so we've had eyes watching you since your abduction. As expected, you led us right to the individual who had the guts to assault _Nazarick_ ~."

'…Oh my god, he didn't…Alex you blithering idiot. But you're at least a determined idiot.'

"Heh, if he's still alive and you're here asking me for help then he's given you guys more trouble than you let on and eludes you even more so. ~Nhehe, if you'd go against him with mere animals they wouldn't be able to even touch him, HoHo!"

"Yes~, we're well aware of that little detail~," he said, pushing up his glasses. "Thankyou for the details, I have all that I've came for. Best of luck in your future endeavours. One more thing, don't tell anyone about Nazarick anymore than you already have, or we will be forced to silence you~."

I gulped as Demiurge was beginning to bow.

"Oh wait, just a quick question!"

"Please make it quick, I need to get back to Lord Ainz now."

"Has Shalltear been resurrected, and how did she react when she was told a human beat her?"

'I know she didn't remember the fight with Ainz, so chances are she doesn't remember me.'

"…"

"…"

"She's obviously been resurrected, that should be obvious for you-."

"Some things are different from what I remember."

"Right~. When she was told of the fight she was utterly mortified. Her pride took a hit from being beaten by you, a human. But since you also bested Albedo those two have another topic they can relate to. They've even talked about going out and killing you to settle the score~."

'…Oh man….'

Somehow I could feel a malevolent force rising against my back and ever growing. It was imaginary I know, but the dam thing…..I can feel the raw hatred in it.

"If that's all, then farewell and I hope we don't meet again anytime soon. [Teleport]."

Suddenly, the formal demon guardian disappeared in a flash of white, leaving me alone in the corridor. Since I had my eye on the whole time, I saw the direction the magic teleported Demiurge was up through ceiling.

'He'd better not set up a surveillance to watch me while I sleep. I'd prefer my own prrrriiiiivacyyyy-Oh f*#k I'm sharing a room with two other guys, that's so not private!'

The rest of my dinner wasn't as fulfilling as it was before after that. The whole conversation with Demiurge seemed to have drained my entire appetite.

After dinner and we'd all gone to our own rooms, I took off my prosthetic leg and went commando in bed with my materialized shirt and shorts on, but again had a trouble taking my arm off. I know I should be used to having a metal arm by now like my leg but come on… it's an arm and I've had a prosthetic leg way longer than this metal appendage.

In the end I just gave up, there was no way I was taking it off. Even if I did it would probably be a bad idea to remove the device which makes all my constructs. I wouldn't be able to make a gun anymore.

Lying down onto the materialized bed I had, I tried clearing my mind, but there was just so many things swirling around up there. Thousand Leagues had cast [phantom restraints] to keep me in the room. That didn't really bother me, broke them before getting into the room by disrupting the molecules holding the spell together.

Magic in this world was so akin to the science in mine. It's like one is the practice of the arts without really knowing its fundamentals and the other is the knowing of the arts fundamentals, but not really knowing how to practice it.

But admits my thought, Demiurges words just kept resurfacing to bite me at the front of my head. 'they're always watching me' and that whole thing with the lizardmen.

'This anime world is changing so much and key events aren't taking place anymore, I don't even recognise it as what it once was. God, I hope Alex is okay~…..why the hell am I praying to GOD!'

Silently cursing my slip up on praying for a god who's deity threw me into this world to begin with, I tried focusing on things that could take my mind off it. Faintly, the other two occupants soundly snored away.

'Like that's going to help.'

Annoyed, I activated my eye and looked around the room. The whole place was clear as day in my vision, coupled with the x-ray aspect I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the room. Extending my range, I accidently saw through the room and into the one next where the girls were sleeping!

They were both under sheets, but it was obvious they weren't wearing any armour and Aurita had such a slender frame. Thousand Leagues' witches hat was perched on the bedside table and her usual long twin ponytails had been undone into long blue hair flowing out all over her bed.

Her frame wasn't as toned as Aurita's in the sense of a warrior, but on the contrary was curved just right without an over-developed chest.

'…..Wow, she actually looks beautiful while she sleeps,' I thought, seeing her silently sleeping face. '…wait, two? Where's Laurissa?'

In the back I saw an empty bed with sheets wide open.

'Maybe she's gone to the bathroom,' I thought, rolling onto my back but freezing upon facing the ceiling. My eye was still active and there was the girl I didn't see.

She'd taken off her armour and was down to a clear nightgown to work her way through the ceiling until she was above our room. Where did she even get that thing?

A board in the ceiling had been removed which served as her little peeping hole, how'd we not hear her?

I didn't know if it was my eye making that gown see-through or not but the pink haired girl wasn't wearing anything underneath!

Feeling my face blush a little and a bulge in my pants, I deactivated my eye.

'Just ignore her, just ignore her~,' I thought, rolling back onto my side to sleep and adjusting my pants. 'I had no idea how much potential for evil this eye really has.'

 **For those who don't recognise what Garmadon made before, I'll give you a quick run-down: first he made a military helicopter with a red paint scheme, a kunai with chain and then a sawn off shot-gun coupled by a chainsaw.**

 **Please leave a comment in the reviews, I like some more ideas for this story before I get to the grand finally** **.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Okay, before I get this chapter started I just want to say I know I asked for reviews to help me progress with this story. But seriously guys. if you don't have anything supportively criticizing can you can talk smack about my OC. I like it and I like writing it. Though I guess I should thank some of you, I'll try and tone down the provocative language.**

 **I'll see what I can do about spreading that to my other chapters.**

* * *

 **Chapter 15**

Everything was black, I can't see …anything. I can feel my body, it's lying down but I can't feel anything else. No warmth nor cold, I can't even move.

A small light shone in the distance like a star. 'Oh yea, I recognise this feeling, it's happened before when I saw Ainz and Narberal in the cemetery….'

The light shone brighter and I was completely engulfed in it before my vision blurred with shadows. My surroundings were slowly refocused, turning into a landscape of pure cogs, small, large. All sizes.

'….This is my eyes ability to see the last thing I was thinking of before losing consciousness,' I thought, as the image travelled across the landscape like I was flying before coming upon an all too familiar figure in a pale throne with blonde hair and a revealing red dress. 'AND I SURE AS HELL wasn't thinking about her!'

While stressing about why I was seeing Vosdulite in my dreams, the goddess paid me no heed, as though she didn't know I was here. She was though watching a pair of hovering blue disks in front of her with an orb similar to the one she used last time I was here as a reference for a planet.

Both showed different images.

One was of three individuals walking along a dirt road with forests on either side. One was a short kid with purple hair dressed in stereotypical adventure clothes from anime with….a sword I think?

Holstered on his back was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen. Coloured greyer than setting cement the sword had countless small angels moulded into it with a red eye imbedded in the hand guard.

'What the hell kind of a sword is that?!'

The second person was a lot more normal. With short-cut dark curly hair, a little chubby and a hikers bag strapped to his back he was much taller than the other one. He also wore arm guards but didn't have a sword holstered, or any obvious large weapons on hand.

'He's probably either the inexperienced or passive type, I mulled to myself as my attention drew over to the third member.

I suddenly found myself holding an imaginary breath and my eyes widening in shock. The third member wasn't human but….half human!

'Oh my god….she's a LAMIA!' I shrieked at seeing my first real life snake woman. In the world I was in, I'd seen a lot of things that could only be found in dreams. But none were this….unique and nostalgic.

The lamia in question had a long dark red scaly tail slithering behind her with light purple skin on her human body. Her lack of full clothing revealed a tattoo running down the left side of her body from her face down to the sash tied around her waist.

Her silver hair reached down to her waist, pointed ears and pale horns like Albedos protruded out. She also had several flowers on a vine attached to each other curling through her hair like some natural hair clip.

'Hang on… she looks familiar….' I mulled, noticing that her red and gold earrings were patterned into double sided eyes. Something that might signify nobility.

Looking over to the second disk, this one was nothing like the first. Set in the clouds there were two people soaring through them. One was a literal angel! With pale feathered wings sprouting from her back and blonde hair reaching down to her feet she was dressed in a white dress that resembled something of a knighting gown and a halo above her head.

She also seemed familiar.

The second person was dressed in armour that looked something akin to Erza's angel armour from Fairy Tail with dual swords, metal wings and everything. But the difference between the two was that this girl had raven hair tied into a ponytail and wore rounded cracked spectacles.

As the two collided I realized they were fighting each other, possibly to the death.

"Give it up Ilias, you whore!" the girl with glasses hissed. "You may declare yourself the one true god, but you're nothing more than a lying manipulative bitch!"

'Ilias, where have I heard that name before?' I puzzled as Ilias parried the blades with her bare hands. She thrust out a hand and solid beam of light blasted out like a riveting laser cannon, striking the armoured girl on the side of her gut and burning her flesh.

'….Oh-oh my god…..ILIAS!' I howled in surprise as I glanced between the lamia and the goddess on each of the two disks. 'She's a character from 'Monster Girl Quest', the rpq game. Vosdulite, what the HELL'S going on here?'

Suddenly Ilias was impaled right through the belly by a halberd, her pure white dress becoming a dark crimson around the wound. Somewhere along the lines, the girl in Erza armour had changed from the angle armour to Erza's Nakagami armour with a raiment circling behind her. Red glowing cracks slowly snacked across Ilias's body from the wound while she displayed an expression of pure shock, fear and anguish.

"It's over for you, Ilias," the ponytail haired girl panted. "Now let the one true god take over…..and allow me to go home~….."

Ilias was covered head-to-wings with gleaming red cracks before she exploded, engulfing the image completely in red rippling light. The three occupants in the other disk seemed to have taken notice of something up above before their image too was engulfed in the light.

The orb behind the disks had a patch the same colour as the disks and was spreading out like water being poured onto the floor before it too cracked and shattered like a stained-glass window. But instead of going everywhere, the pieces just hung in mid-air.

"Fiiiinnnaly~, took them long enough to get rid of a main element in that dimension~," Vosdulite sighed, tilting her head back in annoyance.

'Hang on…..'main element'? What does that mean?'

"Alright, time to go off to revision with you~," she said, outstretching her hand before clenching it into a fist. The disks and shards before her raced into a single spot, condensing and reshaping into a small golden cog with a purple ball at the centre. "This time, have a better story with the _real_ god in it~."

Vosdulite snapped her fingers, and the new cog fell to the floor. A handful of cogs in the floor shifted aside in a mechanized way to allow room for the new one. It snugly slid into place and began turning away like the rest.

 _Wvong…..wvong…..wvong…._

A deep beat sounded through the air. Cranking up I could see the giant gear in the sky pulse a bright blue from its centre. That light traced down through the cog towers connected to it and vis-versa until tracing through the floor and into the new gear.

"Aahhh, good. Revision successful~," Vosdulite cooed with a satisfied look on her face.

'…..Wait, revision? Do you mean to tell me what I just witnessed is what Alex and I are supposed to be doing? Were those new people also from my dimension and you just sent them there with powers as well? Will they go back? ANSWER ME VOSDULITE!'

Just like before, the goddess paid me no heed, or as though she couldn't hear me. Not even singing 'what does the fox say?' to annoy her again prompted any reaction. All the while she was reaching up for the head of her throne where the large emerald was imbedded.

Giving it a tap, the jewel turned amber and five ping-pong sized spheres popped out from it. Spinning though the air they came to a stop mid-air before Vosdulite.

I stopped my attention attempts upon seeing them.

"Let's see~, how many under my authority are left~," she mulled, leaning forward and resting a hand under her chin. Her bosom shifting as she did.

Seriously if she's got melons that big at least wear something to act as a bra. I could somehow feel my nose bleeding from that thought.

"Hmmmm~….there's…. 'Akame ga kill'…. 'Date a live'…. 'Dragon ball Z'…. 'Goblin slayer'…..and 'Overlord'."

My blood froze at that statement, and I turned to the entire landscape of cogs, the ones leading to the sky and those hanging up there.

'So…if a 'main element' were to be removed from the 'Overlord' dimension…. I and everything inside will become a cog and revised to suit her needs. But why does she need to….?'

Suddenly a thumping pain pulsed in my eye, signalling that it was nearing its limits. What sucked at this point was that I still couldn't move my body, so rubbing away the irritation was completely out of the question.

'Aaahh.…this is worse than an unreachable nose itch,' I cursed as the bitch-of-a-goddess sent the balls back into the emerald on her throne. 'I'll be coming back, so I'm expecting answers from yo-.'

It started slowly, but suddenly my vision was blurring backwards as I zoomed out, returning to the darkness I had come from.

* * *

 **Interlude; Nazarick**

"Yoo~uu know somef'in~? Whenever I drank bottled wine blood, I never kept any - _hick_ \- human blah~. Said they weren't worthy being bo'uled~," Shalltear slurred in a slightly sad drunken manner.

She sat on a stool, heeled feet dangling above the floor with her head resting side on the counter in her dark purple dress with her back hunched over. A tall stemmed glass quarter filled with black liquid stood next to her head with her left hand lazily resting at the base.

"Then just when I thought my wildest dreams with Lord Ainz seemed like it was coming true, I'm told I was killed by one~."

It'd only been a day since Shalltear's resurrection after she'd been brainwashed by an unknown World-Item user. Since then she hadn't done anything productive in most eyes and instead fallen into a shallow despair. Though this despair was unique to say the least, because throughout the history of Nazarick, no despair had the same causes as hers.

Firstly, Shalltear got brainwashed by who knows who and revolted against Nazarick. For a guardian such as her, that'd be grounds for an instant execution. Though she wouldn't have minded it if her undead life came undone by the hands the overlord of death himself.

Even if it was during something _intermite_ …. Just thinking about it was making even her undead lady parts tremble in anticipation.

But the second reason was the root of her despair. During her unwilling revolt, some human had set foot into Nazarick, struck a deal with Ainz and proceeded to kill Shalltear. The supreme one expressed his distaste in underestimating the human, expecting him to die. But no matter how it was put by either her fellow guardians or her subordinates, she just couldn't feel any better.

Most said he cheated because no one knew how the fight concluded after the human pulled a blinding act which made them disappear.

So instead of seeking counselling about her troubles, she did the next best thing any logical being would do. Drink away the sorrows.

That's exactly what she did. For half a day Shalltear spent her time in the tombs liquor bar to drown herself.

The small room was dimly lit by the lights at the bar in the centre where a pale humanoid mushroom-looking headed bartender covered by red tumour eyes waited dressed in a suit. His name was Sous-chef, a mushroom man whose species are commonly known as myconid's.

An array of coloured liquids stood shelved behind him in bottles, making it look like an unorganized rainbow. But even so, the setting and atmosphere the bar created set its occupants at ease, a calm that settles even the most restless of hearts to enjoy their drinks in peace.

"I couldn't even imagine what that'd feel like," the Sous-chef responded, wet glass in one hand made of tentacles and a pure white towel in the other he proceeded to dry a glass. "And you're a guardian too, so if I were you I guess I'd be shocked also."

"I know right!" Shalltear retorted sitting back up with half sleepy eyes trying to focus on the mushroom man. "And if I were revolting, I would've preferred Lord Ainz to do the deed~…"

Shalltear picked up her glass and starred down into the alcoholic liquid where a shimmering reflection starred back.

"But if he did do it, he'd have to fight you first. Do you think his…heart could withstand that?" he queried, placing the now dry glass upside-down on the counter next to him.

Shalltear growled slightly and went to guzzling down the remaining contents of her glass in large loud gulps.

"You know no matter how much you drink, you'll never be able to waste yourself on account of your resistance to poisons."

"~Pah~, shut up and poor me another~," Shalltear insisted in a fake drunk tone, waving her empty glass in front to emphasize her demand.

"Yes, yes. Coming right up~."

As Sous-chef turned to get a bottle from the shelf behind, Shalltear lowered her glass so it was standing on the counter once more. A sorrowful look on her face in thought.

'Why can't I remember anything?' she thought, gazing at her reflection in the glass's cylinder as more black liquor was poured in, darkening her own image. 'The only thing I can remember is chasing after some humans in the forest, then I came across some knights… I think…..and then….."

Shalltears head went blank as she couldn't remember anything beyond that, say for waking up in the throne room after a flash of bright light enveloped her. The tender finished refilling the glass when a single drop from the bottle dripped into the glass.

The sound of the drip resonated with the room and Shalltear. Suddenly a dim memory surfaced from deep within her long since dead brain cells.

She was in a landscape, surrounded by fire, upturned pieces of land and crumbling buildings. Soaring low to the earth in her bloody valkyrie armour and outstretched bat wings. She was chasing after a large, long blue steel object with wheels and a large cylinder running down two thirds of its body from the front.

It was charging away and puffing smoke from a chimney as it raced for a bright tear in the space ahead. Aboard the locomotive rode a boy in a black cloak flapping in the wind, a shut eye leaking blood and a metal right arm clinging to the rushing machine. In his left he held a revolver trained at her.

She recognised it from the collection CZ delta had in her arsenal, but far less refined and cared for.

"I hope you like galactic events!" he yelled as he pointed to the sky.

Her vision swerved to the sun, expecting a blinding yellow light. But instead she was met with an orange ball hanging in the sky with a ring of fire orbiting it. The sun was getting smaller and paler quickly.

Suddenly she felt worried, soaring faster after the locomotive, almost keeping pace with it -.

 _Bang_.

The door to the tavern flew open, light flooding in as though it were the sun in her recovered memories. It hurt Shalltears eyes a bit after growing so accustomed to the darkness of the bar and having night-vision.

A tall figure stood in the door way and made their way through, closing it behind, allowing the darkness to once again take hold of the tavern.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't burst in here and disrupt the peace of the bar," the mycronid said annoyed as the figure walked over to take a seat beside the loli vampire.

"My apologies, Sous-Chef. I'll be sure to easy up next time~," Albedo said as she glanced down to the vampire next to her. "I'd like a _Shantou-de-blea_ on the rocks. Base glass."

The mushroom man picked up a wide short glass and proceeded to fill it.

"What are you doing here, bigmouth. Come to make fun about how I was beaten by a human?"

"Hmph, unlike you with your rotting brain cells I'm smart enough to know that something like that would only back fire on me, miss forever small," Albedo remarked as a glass with greenish blue fizzing liquid was set in front of her with a pair of ping-pong shaped ice-cubes bobbing in the liquid. "I was there when Aura and Mare told you about my defeat."

"You bitch…Hea-hea, they totally emphasized the part when a giant flying machine erupted from the arena as though it was buried there before hand and carried you awwaaayyy~. Like it was kidnapping you~," Shalltear giggled slightly. "That must've been fun to watch~."

"Shut up. You were told what happened when that…. Deucalion he called it, appeared. For me it stirred up nothing but hatred," Albedo put the glass to her lips, moving a lock of hair out the way as she drank in light sips.

"And I wonder why he's still alive~. So why are you here really? Light talk was never a thing between us, so cut the act and come clean."

Albedo stopped drinking, leaving a fair bit of the _Shantou-de-blea_ with ice cubes before setting it down in front of her on the polished surface.

"I'm sure you're already aware, but do you know that a team is currently in the process of being made in response to the recent monster outbreak here in Nazarick?" Albedo traced her finger around the rim of the glass, making a soft ringing tone. "Lord Ainz saw fit to put me in charge of assembling the team to find the perpetrators responsible."

"So? You want me to congratulate you?" Shalltear scoffed, going for her drink.

"That would be lovely~," Albedo mused, stopping from circling her glass. "But no. The investigation team are saying that the magical trail from the controlled beast is leading far south. That puts it either dangerously close to the Slane Theocracy, or within the kingdom itself. Since we don't fully understand the kingdoms strength, Lord Ainz has graciously allowed me to select even one guardian to provide protection and lead the unit. This though excludes myself from the selections, and this is where you come in~."

"… _Pah_ ~," Shalltear stopped drinking to turn to the succubus guardian.

"Should the need arise, humans may be silenced to prevent the teams presence from being revealed. Under the circumstances, one might even go out of their way to infiltrate a compound to-."

"-Don't take me for a fool, Albedo," Shalltear snapped, thumping her glass onto the table, slopping its contents around. "While I'm in the Slane Theocracy, you want me to kill the human Garmadon. Right?"

Shalltear rolled her eyes in the succubus's direction with a pissed look. Albedo's eyes glistened at that and her raven feathers ruffled a bit as a smirk crept onto her lips.

"Surely you want to get back at him, don't you? At this point, he's a waving liability with more knowledge of Nazarick than any lowly lifeform should have. Think of it as a means of securing Nazaricks future by cutting a loose end. The spies set on him have already reported that he's made a blunder in that regard."

"…."

"…."

"…"

There was silence in the room as the pair starred at one another. Say for the soft rubbing of a towel against glass by Sous-chef.

"Hmf~, using me to settle a grudge. Something I'd only allow a supreme being to do~," Shalltear groaned, breaking the silence and turning back to her glass, picking it up and swirling the contents around. Her lips quickly curved up into a deep grin. "Very well, I'd be happy to partake in this matter. But what of my floors? Simple undead and my vampire brides won't be enough to make up for the loss."

"Fret not, Demiruge has offered to place Avaris, Jealousy and Wrath on the first floor under Cocytus's care. Any lowly being that would dare sully the first floor will be dealt with swiftly and harshly."

"Hng-hng-hng~…Well then, a toast~," Shalltear laughed, raising her glass before Albedo. "To the protection of the great Tomb of Nazarick and our beloved Supreme being, Lord Ainz~."

Albedo raised her own glass to the gesture. "To the one who stands atop the world~."

 _Chink~._

The two guardians threw their heads back and guzzled their glasses until the contents had run down their throats.

"Ah~, that was lovely-."

Suddenly Albedo collapsed, falling from her stool and landing with a _thump_ on the ground. The empty glass fell through the air but was snatched by the bar tender's tentacle hand.

Albedo laid on the floor with her sleeping face blushed as she moaned as though in pleasure while shifting her legs.

"Seems she couldn't hold her liquor," the Sous-chef addressed as he moved to wash the glass.

"But she's the strongest guardian in Nazarick. How'd she get done in by a simple alcoholic drink?" Shalltear asked bewiled, feeling a bit better after seeing the guardian overseer completely waste herself to the point of blacking out.

But at the same time she felt cheated seeing her rival accomplish something in a mere drink she'd been trying for half a day.

Albedos legs waved lightly as she moaned a little louder than before and murmuring "Take me, take me~," coupled with "Momonga~," and a number of punctilious "yes's." The very notion of this just pissed Shalltear off in disgust.

"To be frank, _Shantou-de-blea_ is a new concoction I made recently. It isn't as alcoholic as some of the other drinks in stock, but laced with magic it weakens even the most potent of poison resistances in proportion to how much one intakes," the tender explained, finishing from washing the glass and now drying it. "I'm personally amazed she even held out that long until the final sip."

Shalltear's face turned from disgust to pouting. Swirling to the pale mushroom tender, looking him square in one of his red tumour eyes while holding her glass out.

"Gimme."

The Sous-chef gave a slight sigh before turning to the shelves and picking up a tall funnelled bottle filled with the fizzing greenish blue liquid labelled _Shantou-de-blea_ in Japanese.

Once the glass was full and Sous-chef stopped pouring, Shalltear instantly threw back her head and gulped the entire contents in one go. Just when she finished, the vampire guardian's eyes dulled and she collapsed onto the floor just like Albedo.

The sudden weakening of her resistance to poisons let loose the full alcoholic effects built up by the drinks she'd taken for half a day. While unconscious, the faint sound of a liver _popping_ could be heard.

"Good grief~…." Sous-chef sighed after catching the glass like before. "I may have to call some maids to take care of them until they wake up~."

* * *

 **Much later; Slane Theocracy**

Nearly a full day passed, the western setting sun on the horizon cast an orange glow over the Slane Theocracy capital. Surrounded by human settlements of the city, the centre cathedral towered tall and proud as a humongous building with a rectangular structure and a rising tower in the middle.

Six rounded smaller buildings encircled the cathedral, about half the height of the centre building they were each connected to it by long halls wider than barns. Each representing a scripture of the Theocracy.

From the skies, the whole thing looked like a large centred asterisk.

Atop the domed roof of one of these two buildings that stood closest to the entrance laid a girl with a double headed scythe lying under her head as a pillow. Dressed in clothes crossed with puffy pyjamas with a skirt and armour, half her hair was pure white while the other was black as night.

The colour of her cloths were made to mirror that aspect of her.

"…So boring~…," Zesshi groaned, trying to enjoy the breeze but finding no joy in it.

After the small army of diverted Holocaust scriptures had been sent out the previous day, Zesshi managed to overhear a few of the lower priests gossiping that if they failed in exterminating the monster at Daigel, there was a chance her scripture was going to be the backup.

It didn't happen often, but Zesshi was so happy there was a chance she could fight that she prayed to the gods for their failure.

An act that if she were caught doing would've caused the cardinals to reprimand her for sure. But being the most powerful being in the nation meant that those old farts couldn't do anything to severe like give her the death penalty or banishment. That, and they'd lose their hidden trump card.

To her personal dismay though, the gods didn't fulfil her selfish request. Through the use of recognisance magic, the Clear water scripture declared the situation to be resolved.

But what did interest Zesshi was that the beasts that'd attacked weren't done in by the Holocaust scripture as intended. But by a captive being smuggled through from the Re-Estize kingdom.

Statistically speaking, those in the Re-Estize kingdom should be completely weak on account of being enclosed by human nations instead of monster nations like the rest. Limiting their chances to _lair-bellup_ , an ancient term used from the age of gods to express one getting stronger. With the exception of the kingdoms royal head warrior, Gazef Stronoff and a few others.

The way how the nations are geographically set up makes it so that the Re-Estize kingdom is surrounded by human nations that don't constantly attack them. On the contrary, these surrounding nations have gained greater strength and experience fighting monsters. Such as the Theocracy's on-going war with the magical elf demi-humans.

Being so, the Re-Estize kingdom has become a cesspool of corruption built upon an imagination of strength. They wouldn't know what real strength is if it kicked them in the groin.

"I just hope he provides me with some moniker of entertainment~," Zesshi breathed, looking to the sky while brushing against an oval talisman around her neck resembling an eye.

Since Zesshi's very existence was a secret, she'd been ordered to always wear an invisibility talisman assassin's use while outside.

Suddenly Zesshi felt her pointed elven ears twitch, concealed amongst her hair to the sound of hooves clopping against gravel from the courtyard. It was accompanied by the grinding of wood against gravel.

Sitting up, Zesshi looked down to the grounds before the cathedral.

Although the cathedral itself is made up of the seven individual buildings, it acted as one and is surrounded by an encircling wall. The back was reserved for training in the art of combat as well as where horses are kept.

The front however, wasn't meant for such things.

Being the first thing visitors entered after passing through the gates, an impression of power, wealth and, if need be, false hospitality needs to be made without soldiers training methods being openly revealed.

That being the case, the front courtyard wasn't as vast as the rear. Mostly decorated with flowered gardens, trimmed hedges and patrolling holy guards, a wide gravel road stretched from the gate to an encircling path before the cathedral with a stone fountain in the middle, lined with the six deities.

It was here a horse trotted along, pulling a wooden carriage behind. Two people sat at the head of it, one dressed in leather armour, silver hair tied back with a pair of swords holstered at his waist and steering the reins. The other was…..

"Waaiiit…. Oh hey~, it's Thousand Leagues Astrologer~," Zesshi mused, feeling a little excited at seeing the blue-haired twin-tailed surveillance magic caster of the Black Scripture.

But as the carriage went along an icicle taller than her and just as wide punched through the roof. Onlookers were shocked as the carriage lurched to the side of the icicles extra weight.

"Hooo~, now that's something new," Zesshi said, leaning against her scythe as Thousand Leagues hurriedly levitated to enter the carriage through the rear door.

There was some panic in the courtyard as soldiers, both magical and melee encircled the carriage as it pulled up to the front. Zesshi watched a guard walk up to the silver-haired driver, and with her acute sense of hearing easily made out their conversation.

Just as Zesshi thought, this was definitely the team Thousand Leagues was a part of. The fact that someone was led out the back wearing the [zero-point] shackled was proof in on itself.

"Guess they couldn't peacefully recruit him as intended, but instead resorted to reeling him in forcefully~."

Wearing the enchanted cuffs, the boy looked young. A little older than how her elven blood made herself look. Dawned in a black hooded coat with steel-tipped leather boots, Zesshi's first impression was that he was a caster from the elusive Zuranon cult. But then again, those zombie enthusiasts never had metal arms, they occasionally went for skeleton ones.

"Haaah….what a letdown~," Zesshi sighed, slacking down a bit in disappointment. "He's just a teenager, he doesn't even look that strong as a caste-."

Down amongst the crowd, the new comer was now looking up at her, and not in a 'her general direction' kind of way. He was looking directly at her with his right eye dully glowing purple with an insignia at his iris.

'Oooh, can he see me, even though I'm invisible?'

Just on a hunch, Zesshi hefted up her scythe in one hand, seemingly like it weighed nothing and waved it at him.

A smirk grew on the boys face before becoming a toothy grin as he was led through the grand arch-way of the cathedral.

"Oh, he so saw me," Zesshi noted, spreading her arms wide and falling backwards off the roof only to wedge her scythe into the building to summersault through an open window while using the momentum to unhinge the blade.

'If I understand correctly, those brought in from outside are first taken before the six cardinals under maximum security to determine their potential usefulness, or to be executed on the spot,' she thought, removing the talisman to pocket it as she sped through winding corridors and busting open doors. 'This hasn't happened in ages, and I refuse to miss this one.'

Leaping over maids carrying books and slipping by priests, it didn't take her long at her inhuman speed and shortly was coming up to an archway to the cathedral's central hall. A place where denizens pray in holy matrimony.

Though on other occasions, it's where scripture members, soldiers or believers come to speak with all the six cardinals.

Someone stood with their back turned to Zesshi in the archway ahead, clad in silver armour outlined in gold and with long mossy green hair stretching below his waist. Zesshi slowed her pace down before stopping just behind the captain of the Black Scripture in silent strides.

"It's unusual to see you here, Zesshi," he said, without so much as turning in her direction.

"Yea, well~….what's a woman to do to relieve some boredom around here~?"

The room they stood just outside of was wide, lined with two dozen rows or so of long benches on either side. A path ran the full length of the room's perimeter with ledge a couple of steps high at the far end of the room opposite the main doors.

Atop this ledge, with tainted glass casting a harmonious light of the evening from behind them stood the six cardinals.

All dressed in white buttoned robes with blue pointed hats, there stood; Berenice Nagua Santini of fire, Ginedine Delan Guelfe of water, Dominic Ihre Partouche of wind, Raymond Zarg Lauransan of Earth and commander of the six scriptures, Yvon Jasna Dracrowa of light and Maximilian Oreio Lagier of darkness.

Guards stood positioned around the room. A few were of Black Scripture as well. Though not all of them could be present on account of either recuperating from the previous mission to prevent the Dragon Lord Catastrophe, were dead or just couldn't make it for other reasons.

"Now entering, 11th seat of the Black Scripture; Thousand leagues Astrologer and sub assistant of the Windflower Scriptures 213th recon corpse; Aurita Hemsworth," announced a maid by the door at the other end.

One que, the blue haired magic caster floated in barefoot with that oversized witch's hat through the doors with the chestnut-haired soldier in silver armour and high heels walking by her side. Coming up to the cardinals, they both knelt before them.

"Your graces, we have returned from our assigned mission, and have brought the believed god-kin from the Re-Estize kingdom," Thousand Leagues reported, keeping her head bowed.

There were a few murmurs in the room until a Berenice raised her hand.

"We understand you've completed your mission," she began. "But there is another matter we wish to be rectified."

"Yesterday, the town of Diagel came under siege by a horde of monsters," Domonic intervened. "It was repelled by this new believed god-kin nearly single handily. As witnesses from that assault, we ask that you inform us of what the cause was."

"Of course. The incident yesterday was in direct accordance with….a declaration of war."

"WAR?! How have we not heard of this?"

"My apologies, but the declaration was announced to only a single member of the Slane Theocracy after her entire team was wiped out; Aurita Hemsworth."

"Auria Hemsworth, you were assigned to investigate the forest of Tob in the Re-Estize kingdom. We ask that you explain what she's talking about and why you've returned without the rest of your team."

Auritas face faltered at possible thoughts of fear, more than likely memories.

"Y-yes. Two days ago, while investigating the unusual increase of wildlife activity in the forest of Tob as per our assigned mission. My team and I encountered a child believed to be around the age of 14 or so. He displayed abilities that controlled the beasts there," she shuddered as she reported the incident, remembering the animals that leaped out of trees like killer 'jack in the boxes' and those that devoured her team mates in one gulp. "He even had some mild control over a dryad. After sparing my life informed me to tell you that he intends to wipe the kingdom three days from then."

"Three days….? That leaves one to amount a counter force."

"We should evacuate all surrounding towns, or at least send armies there in case they're attacked."

"But it'll take too long for an entire army to get there, and even if they did make it, that's assuming they attack in the night."

"But doing so would drain the defences on the capitals, and we can't divert any more forces from the war with the elves, nor can we cease resource transportations. We need to understand this boy's next target."

"Let's assume that this child is not human. A 14-year-old who can command an army through magic alone is completely inhuman. Saying so, its safe to say the capital, the symbol of humanity's supremacy is next. In the mean time we should have the surrounding areas surveyed for beasts."

"If I may, your excellencies," Thousand leagues spoke up, lifting her head as she did. "The child name is Alex, and after confronting him, I believe his next target is the capital."

All the cardinals turned to her at her declaration.

"You've encountered the enemy commander?" questioned Yvon.

"That is correct."

"So what makes you think he's coming here next?"

"Well, it's not that he's after the kingdom. But the annihilation of the religion of the six gods and replace it with the Christian religion."

A few gasps could be heard in the room. Mostly from maids and priests, but a few of the guards did it as well.

"And what other information did you gleam from him? What country does this Alex hail from?"

"During the….interaction I had with Alex, it came to light that he hails from Australia. An uncharted land that we believe to have culture unlike our own. We also learnt that he and Garmadon are…..siblings."

An earie silence fell upon the room. The realization that they were housing the enemy commander's brother slowly sank into people. A potential way of leverage, a bargaining chip.

"And Garmadon is here, isn't her?" Ginedire said, breaking the silence.

Thousand Leagues gave a quick nod in confirmation.

"Bring him in."

The maid that'd announced Thousand Leagues and Aurita's entrance nodded and disappeared for a bit behind the doors. In a few moments, she returned and stood at her previous position.

"Now entering; Harold Kipfler and Laurissa Eschavalia of the Clearwater scripture, Halitosis Odor of the Holocaust scripture and-."

"AAHH-hahaha, gughaha~!"

Before she could finish, the entire room was filled with thunderous laughter from beyond the doors. It was male and didn't show any sign of shutting up any time soon.

"-This is the first time I've heard your full name, halitosis…..odour….ghgh~. There must've been a fart when someone picked your nam-."

 _Snap!_

Suddenly there was the sound of bones breaking and the laughing voice abruptly cut off.

"….Ah gee urg oint. Ahng hut uc (I see your point. I'll shut up)…..," the voice croaked again, but this time sounding like it was being strangled.

"R-right. And also entering; Garmadon Edward of the 'up yours comity'," the maid hesitantly completed. A few confused looks ran across the most of the rooms occupants, but Thousand Leagues just looked dumbfounded and angry.

"Disgraceful, that maid was told to say some insulting words by this new comer in place of his occupation title," the captain breathed in disgust as Zesshi was grinning a bit behind him. "Zesshi, someone from outside the Theocracy is about to enter. Be sure to have your invisibility talisman on."

Her mood faltered a bit at being told what to do, but Zesshi was in somewhat of a good mood.

"Fine, fine," she breathed, fishing the talisman from her shirt pocket.

She'd just slipped it on and gone invisible when the four people called out entered the room.

At the head of the group was the silver-haired warrior she saw from outside, at the back were a pink haired girl in sapphire coloured amour and a large muscular man with tanned skin, light armour and a mohawk.

In the middle walked the kid in the black cloak with dirty blonde hair and wearing the [zero-point] shackles. Restraints made to negate all spells the bearer were to use. But that's just a cover to strike fear into enemies.

Not many know of it, but the limit it suppresses is 5th tier and below, but very few were alive to this day with magic capabilities above 3rd tier.

"What is the meaning of this, why is he wearing the [zero-point] shackles?" Domonic demanded as the new occupants knelt before the cardinals, except one.

"Well you see-."

"It's because it's a means of protecting everyone," Garmadon interrupted, taking a step forward. The guards on standby tensed up and a few moved next to the ledge the cardinals were on. "Frankly speaking, I'm here because I want to be here. But to do that, I agreed with Thousand Leagues Astrologer here to walk in restrained."

"Insolence. Do not speak unless spoken to," a guard spat.

"Back at you. No one was even acknowledging your existence till you said something."

The guard flinched at that statement.

"Enough," Berenice spoke up drawing the attention away from the bickering. "Garmadon Edward, we believe you to be a god-kin, yet you hail from outside the Slane Theocracy. Are you in fact human, and for what reason does your brother attack our kingdom?"

There was a momentary pause as Garmadon looked over the individuals before him. Occasionally glancing over in the captain's general direction. But didn't always look at him directly.

"You're wearing the talisman, aren't you Zesshi?" the captain whispered under his breath, so as not to be heard.

"Of course I am. Don't think of me as a fool," she whispered back

"Before I answer, understand that I'm no god-kin. I'm human," Garmadon said. "No blood of your profound gods run through my veins and I don't intend on joining your religion-."

"PROFOUND?!"

Yvon raised his hand to tell the rooms occupants to remain silent, no matter how much he himself wanted to lash out at that statement in rage.

"-After I stop my brother and get him back I'll be leaving. Any questions?"

The cardinals just stared down at him, a few with disgusted looks but all had anger in there eyes.

"Before you said; 'get him back'," Berenice spoke up, breaking the silence. "Does that mean he's being manipulated by another kingdom, such as your home country?"

"Haah! Oh god no, he outright despises your religion and is using all his resources to whip out every trace of it~."

* * *

 **Interlude; Garmadon**

'Oh jeez this is hilarious~. I'm pissing off the cardinals while telling them what they want to hear. May not be the direct truth but there's no way I'll tell them about Vosdulite. There'd be a full blown riot if I did.'

* * *

 **Interlude; Slane Theocracy**

The room fell silent at this sudden outburst. Someone who detests the Theocracy this much has never once been heard of before.

"Thousand Leagues Astrologer."

"Yes, your grace."

"As of now, custody of Garmadon will be transferred from you to the royal guard. In the meantime, we want you to return to your position on the Black Scripture after delivering your missions report. The same goes for you also, Aurita Hemsworth. The rest of you shall return to your own scriptures effective immediately."

"Of course," the rest all said in unison.

"Wait… so what's going to happen to me?"

"You shall be questioned about your brothers' abilities, and if decreed fit will also be deployed against him-."

"-Do you not remember me saying 'I won't be joining you'?!"

Suddenly Zesshi could feel a descending presence rapidly falling through the air outside above. Not only that, but she could hear the wind screeching with it.

 _Booom!_

The ceiling caved in, rubble crashing and splintering chairs beneath. Luckily there wasn't anyone underneath, but the fact the ceiling just exploded made all warriors battle ready. Even the captain in front of Zesshi had rushed from the archway to stand before the cardinals to defend them.

"Yeeaah, that really won't be necessary," spoke a voice from amongst the dust. "Gotta love those wyverns. Can soar higher than the clouds~."

As the dust settled, a dull blue light shone. The room tensed as a figure completely made of the light was revealed and standing in the centre of an upside-down ice dome amongst the rubble. Most likely used as the battering ram to bust through the ceiling.

He was a young boy dawned in a cloak which completely covered his body, say for his head. He was like a ghost in a church, which doesn't really work on account of all the … holiness.

"Greetings denizens and old geezers of the Slane Theocracy," he greeted, getting up from the rubble with what could only be described as short afterimages of himself chasing after him. "I have come to-."

 _Bang-buuugh!_

He was immediately cut off by a fist to the face and in the next moment was wedged in a small crater on the nearby wall. Garmadon now stood with faint traces of red lighting dancing across his body and outstretched metal fist on the middle of the melting ice dome.

"You idiot, why are you here now?" he demanded.

"Ahhh~, is that anyway to say hello to your own bro?" the intruder groaned, dragging himself from the cater and landing on the floor neatly. His after images again rapidly chasing after him.

His jaw looked like it'd been completely dislocated from the punch and a gash had been opened under his eye on the same side. But quickly, blue lightning danced across the wounds and his jaw realigned itself with deep clicking and the gash without so much as a scar.

'Did he just use magic? But he's shackled,' Zesshi pondered.

In the next moment, a pair of military casters appeared on either side of him.

"[Hostage chains]."

Red circles appeared in front of each of them before three sets of chains exploded out, snacking around their intended target. In a flash the chains pulled taught and Alex stood with a smug look on his face bound by them.

'Well that was anticlimactic,' Zesshi thought, as her beating heart from the sudden surprise died down as quickly as it had come. 'I was hoping for a little more fighting~.'

Still feeling a bit disappointed, Zesshi's gaze drifted over to Garmadon who still stood amongst the rubble, the ice had now broken in half and still melting. He was looking right at her again, with that right eye of his glowing dully purple.

"Bro? Can we assume that you are the perpetrator threatening our kingdom, Alex Edward?" Domonic boomed from amongst the cardinals, keeping his composure even after what had just transpired.

"Edward...?"

The chained spectre gave a confused glance to his brother who replied with a simple nod. Alex shrugged at that response.

"Yes I am, and I come to say that I've called off my assault on the Theocracy," he announced, sternly looking at the cardinals. "For now, anyways, I shall not gut you like pigs with pigs."

"Bold words from someone who's chained and uses lowly animals to do his bidding," spat the Captain, keeping his spear low but moving forward until he was behind Garmdon. Not trusting him enough to stand beside him.

"I'm amazed you'd have the audacity to think we'd believe the words of an enemy. Now that we have you, we can execute you on the spot and rid ourselves of your threats. The gods halve delivered you to us for divine judgement for all the lives you've taken," Yvon announced, straightening up with the cardinals, bathed in the dusks light.

"Aaah-haa~, you see….that's the problem with you people," Alex sighed. "I know that I'll someday be reprimanded for my actions in this land. But your gods never sent me here, and frankly, I'm not restrained."

The cardinals tried to hide their confusion to the self-contradicting statement just made. But ever so slight traces were etched into their faces.

"You're a projection, aren't you?" Thousand Leagues spoke up, standing beside Garmadon. "I know for a fact this isn't what you really look like. The you right now is completely made of a thin layer of mana. So the most likely conclusion is that the real you is projecting an image of himself from a far away distance through the use of a ritual."

"Oooh, I like the way you think, been a while hasn't Thousand Leagues Astrologer~. But no. I'm no projection, but a separate entity with a soul copied off the original and given form though his power."

'A copied soul, huh~,' Zesshi thought of the idea. 'I don't think I've heard of that before. Taking and giving, maybe. But not copying.'

"So you're a product of the [shadow clone] technique?"

"It's cute that you think of it like that. But I've had about enough of this, I'm going to be leaving soon," while still bound, magic began leaking off his body in blue flames. "Figure it our yourselves. James, or Garmadon, which ever you prefer to be called right now. Don't ever try and stop me again from completing my mission. If you get in my way to get home anymore I'll-."

"Overwrite my soul?" Garmadon interrupted. "And when that happens, you truly will kill me."

An expression of sadness softened the boy's expression as his body continued to burn into magic flames. "That's right," he replied as his entire body burst into flames and disappeared, leaving the chains with noting to restrain and falling slack to the floor.

At this point, the sun had completely set, leaving the room absent of external light sources. Autonomously, light crystals embedded into walls flickered to life and illuminated the room.

"I'm not fixing that," Garmadon said, pointing to the hole in the ceiling. A bird fluttered in, tweeting away as it did a couple of laps around the hall before flying back out.

"Good grief~," Thousand Leagues sighed before the cardinals called the room back to order.

* * *

 **Later; Garmadon**

'Man that was exhausting~,' I internally sighed walking led by a maid down the hall.

After Alex made his appearance and disappeared like some will-o-wisp, the cardinals wouldn't stop bickering to each other as to what to do next. They even tried dragging me into conversations a couple of times to get intel out of me.

That and they tried to exercise their religion on me.

'Seriously though, if the politics I just witnessed are any indication to how the strongest human nation in this world is run I might as well burn it to the ground myself. _Soooo muuuuchhh bickeriiinnngg~.'_

Though I guess I should be happy that nothing of the control dimension was leaked to them. My blunder to Laurissa and Thousand Leagues prompted more than a little attention from Nazarick, so I had to find someway to make amends.

I didn't have any machines that could wipe memories in my arsenal, but I had a meagre understanding in cerebral biology. By bombarding certain cells in the brain with focused electric waves that act as memories, one could effectively distort those same memories.

On the way to the Theocracy, I managed to get Laurissa and Thousand Leagues in the same cabin as me. I brought up conversations about Diagel as a way to make them remember the ranting I did outside the pub. With my eye I saw what parts of their brains resonated as the memories then subtly bombarded those brain cells with focused electricity.

It would've been a lot easier if I could touch them to get a direct feel, but as time progressed the two began showing less and less knowledge on the subject. It soon became apparent that they both had mixed memories on what I and Alex had said. But I was concerned that Thousand Leagues remembered I was from Australia.

Just going to have to play it off like it's from across the seas or something. Anything other than another dimension!

In truth, the fact that I could tamper with a person's memories, their lives, scared me…...

In the end, I made it a point to the cardinals that I wouldn't be joining them and that we'd only have a mediocre alliance until I got Alex. Since he wasn't aiming for here anymore it's a suitable bet to say he's either gunning for Zuranon, Ainz, the Dragonic kingdom or the Re-Estize kingdom in the name of god.

The cardinals kept on saying he was lying, but I'm betting he's going after more power to amass a strike against the Theocracy and easily whip it off the face of the planet. Or collect more intel on them, one or the other.

The Baharuth empire might not be a valid target for him, seeing as some soldiers believed in the one true god to a passable extent. So there might not be any need for him to attack it.

'Come to think of it, the adventures guild in E-Rantel was going to have Blue Rose deal with an incident involving Zuranon. I wonder if they can help….'

After much more bickering, the cardinals said they'd continue the discussion the next day when we're all re-energized for the talks. I don't know if that's just the politics in this land, or they're just like that. I said 'yea sure' but come day break, I'll be long gone.

'And if this place wasn't a potential main element in the 'Overlord' anime I'd burn it to the ground. I wonder if carpet bombing the place with a jet would be fun~?...'

"Your room is just up ahead," the maid addressed as we rounded another corner. Numerous doors lined one side of the corridor with large windows mirroring them on the other.

"Thankyou," I replied, gazing around the light crystal illuminated corridors. "Tell me, do these crystals generate their own magic to work, or do they need to be recharged?"

"These crystals are of a special type, naturally they light up in direct proportion to how much mana they're exposed to," she explained. "Because of that, they rest on magical runes set to charge during the day and discharge during the night. But the runes themselves need some maintenance every now and again."

"Oh interesting," I mused watching one with an active eye.

Of course I already knew that. The first time these lights came on my eye showed the magic particles in it acting like a fountain. I just wanted an excuse to turn around without looking suspicions to whomever the hell was following me!

Just off behind us, a figure kept her pace behind us while carrying a hefty scythe. With my left eye alone I couldn't see her, but my right had shown her to be covered in a transparent veil of red light. Much like Thousand Leagues cloak illusion spell from the first time I met her.

But I've been seeing this chick ever since I got here. I subtly acknowledged her existence before because I just wanted to goof around. But this was getting out of hand. Why can't I remember her from the anime, I'm sure she'd stand out? She's not another person from the control dimension Vosdulite sent, is she?

"And we're here."

The maid broke me out of my thoughts as we stopped before a door. Grasping the silver handle she opened it to let me in to the room beyond.

"This isn't half bad~," I mused, walking in. The place reminded me of the room I awoke in back at Nazarick. Minus the beautiful inhuman maids, it being a large room, a nostalgic feeling to it and irritating surgeon trying to pry open my arm.

Though I can't say this place won't try to do the same.

A queen-sized bed laid at one end with lavish cushions and at the other a lounge chair equally lavish with a coffee table in front of it. Behind next to a closet stood a dresser with small statues of the cardinals six gods and a seven-candlestick holder.

'Must be a guest room,' I thought, starring into the darkness through the two arching windows opposite me. 'I know it's basic middle ages design procedure to have arches in large buildings for support, but this place might as well be worshipping arches rather than Yggdrasil players.'

"I shall return later with dinner. Do you have any preferences?" the maid queried.

"Just nothing poisons please," I lightly joked.

The maid gave a bow before leaving the room, closing the door behind her and leaving me standing in the room alone. Or so it seemed.

"Alright~," I breathed, holding up my shackled arms and focusing on the lock's molecules. Because changing an atoms atomic number takes too long, I focused on alining the molecules to generate small but strong magnetic fields in two parts of the same bar that repelled each other.

In a few moments the locks tore themselves apart by the repelling magnet fields and thumped onto the floor with the glowing orange rings growing dimmer. Sitting onto the bed I turned to face the room.

"So, whom do I owe the pleasure to? I doubt a spy would look so beautiful while hefting a scythe bigger than herself around, or even wave at me. So come on out, I won't bite."

There were a few moments of silence. At this point my eye wasn't active, so I didn't really know if she was even in here or not.

I was considering activating it when the air on the couch opposite me shimmered slightly before a blue line of light traced the unseen figure from her feet, the last strands of hair and even to the edge of the scythe.

She had an odd appearance to say the least, sitting cross-legged and holding an eye styled talisman in her hand. With an above knee-high skirt and a buttoned jumper looking top, the right side of her clothing, even her hair covering her ears were completely white. Vis versa, the left was black.

Despite that, her right eye was black while the left was white. She also had oversized hair clips on either side of her head in opposite colours to the hair they were in.

'Wow, she's really gunning for the yin-yang thing, isn't she? Even more than my eye and arm.'

"You called?" she asked in a bored tone.

'Think man, think! If she is from the 'Overlord' anime then surely you must've seeennn heeerrr-Oh I remember now!'

"Zesshi Z-Zetsumei, right? I honestly never thought you'd show up like this."

A look of pure shock struck across Zesshi's face at my greeting.

"How do you know my name?!" she shrieked, rocketing up from her seating position while glaring at me. "I'm the Slane Theocracy's greatest secret. An outsider like you shouldn't even know I exist!"

"Then what the hell are you doing here and blurting out you're a secret weapon?"

Zesshi stopped open mouthed, a twitch under her eye.

"I came here because I wanted to see how strong you were and to see if you'd be willing to fight~," she sighed, slumping back down into the couch, covering her eyes with gloved fingers and pinching the ridge of her nose. "Oah, those old geezers are going to reprimand me big time for this~."

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I won't tell any of them you came here to-."

"I know," Zesshi cut me off and taking her hand from her face, eyes gleaming deadly at a thought. "No one will know if there's nothing to know from. After all, the dead don't speak~."

"Wha-?!"

Before I could react, Zesshi became a blur and my vision was spinning insanely until bumping in to a nearby wall then rolling on the floor until stopping while looking up at Zesshi. If I had a better angle, I'd definitely see that which no man must.

She was standing in front of the bed with her scythe on her shoulder. My legs were dangling on the bed with the rest of my body.

"What a letdown~," she sighed, looking down at me. "I honestly thought you'd put more of a fight after what everyone said about you being a potential god-kin."

'….The bitch just decapitated me,' I thought as my vision darkened, crumbling to ash while also being replaced with red lightning. I was expecting a burning pain at my neck, but because I was probably in so much shock I didn't feel a thing. 'You wanna see more of a fight-?'

The lightening in my vision subsided and was replaced with the rooms ceiling, coupled with a burning strain running up my neck, skull and tips of my ears. The uncanny feeling of my flesh and nerves reforming themselves.

"-Then I'll give you one!" I yelled, eye activating and charging the cells in my body.

Perceivable time slowed to 100th of a second with my reflexes matching that speed. I sat up in time to see Zesshi swinging her scythe at me again. She was fast, but compared to both the guardians and my eye, she was nothing.

Leaping off the bed Zesshi's scythe cleaved through thin air. While curving over her, I materialized a brown long cylinder around my arm with an array of speakers at the end resembling a flower head. At the end, a black bar was imbedded with a single green bar in it.

"Checkmate."

The single green bar amongst the black drastically multiplied across the length while changing colour to yellow then hitting to red at the end.

 _Bo-WAAAHHHHH!_

A deafening screech exploded from the speakers and engulfed Zesshi before I landed on the coffee table. She cringed in pain as she gritted her teeth and the rooms windows cracked, snaking from the edges.

"That's dirty!" Zesshi hissed, turning to glare at me as I stepped down from the table and getting closer.

"Says the half elf how decapitated someone out of the blue," I replied, a horrified and hateful expression carved onto her face as I materialized another cylinder on my other arm. "May next time be more honourable."

"..How do you….?"

The other bar maxed out to the red then-.

 _Ba-Vutctctctctctctxxx!_

"HAAAHHHHH!"

 _Crash!_

Zesshi screamed in agony, dropping her scythe to grip her ears to the high-pitched sonic waves while the cracking glass shattered.

Suddenly Zesshi's eyes rolled back in her head, her mouth hung agape as she collapsed face first onto the floor.

Turning off my sonic speakers the ear-piercing whistling ceased, smoke hissed from either end of the cylinders. The overheating was burning my left arm. Hurryingly I chucked the weapons off to have them dematerialize on the floor into blue pixels.

" _sniiff~…._ Aaahhh, that hurt~," I sighed, shacking my arm to cool it down before dabbing my ear and seeing a streak of blood running across the metallic fingers. "I think my ears drums burst somewhere along the way."

Just then, I realized I wasn't actually hearing what I was saying physically, but mentally. My ears drummed away as red sparks danced away inside.

"….It came from over here…."

"….Isn't that the newbies room?..."

"….Nah, he's just a guest…"

Faint voices were drifting from the other side of the door accompanied by hastened footsteps. Glancing from the door, the broken windows, and the unconscious secret weapon at my feet, I felt a panicked urge swelling up in my chest.

"no-no-no-no."

Cursing along the way, I engaged my eye to the max and charged every cell in my body to the point I thought they'd burn out.

* * *

 **Interlude; Slane Theocracy**

Three guards were charging down the corridor at hastened speed. One a melee fighter while the others were battle casters. Warlock in technical terms.

Moments ago, while patrolling the halls a sudden high-pitched inhuman screech sounded through the halls followed by shattering glass.

"It's here," coming up to a door they busted it open, expecting an absolute mess with broken glass.

"Oh, can I help any of you?" a voice met them.

The rooms lone occupant was the newcomer sitting upright in bed reading a book. The windows were intact and nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first, but….

"Search the room," one of them instructed.

"Excuse me?"

The three of them piled into the room, searching through furniture, the closet and behind the curtains.

"Hey hey, this is an invasion of my privacy," he complained, clambering off the bed to put up resistance but came face-to-face with one of the casters.

"What was that noise?" she demanded, sizing up.

"What was what noise?"

"Oh, don't play innocent. We could hear that high-pitched screech from the other end of the hall. What, was it?"

"Oh that….um," he glanced around the room before settling on the book on the bed. "I was re-enacting a scene I was reading in this book."

Reaching for it on the pillow, he snatched it to hold in front of him, gesturing to the cover.

"There was screaming and glass smashing."

"It was a reeeaally active scene."

"You were re-enacting a scene that involved glass smashing and high-pitched screaming…..from a fairy tale book?"

At that statement the boy's face went pale as a sheet.

"…..Y-yeah. It was when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall. The screaming were the people's reaction and the smashing was Humpty breaking into pieces~."

"….I have a five year old daughter, and every night I tuck her in I read her this fairy tale book. Not once have I read a passage that involves a 'Humpty Dumpty' character."

His face, after getting a little red back in his cheeks went ghostly pale again.

"Okay okay. Thing is….. I ….. had the window open for some fresh air. Then a pair of bats flew in and started fluttering around the place. Now….haha…I may not be scared of most animals, but bats scare the living daylights out of me. So, I created a few vases and tried to swat at them but missed a few times and thumped the coffee table, breaking the vase."

He gestured to a dent in the table where he landed from jumping over Zesshi.

"They got away but…..I'm not at all happy with my fear of…..devil faced pig nosed bats…... urhuhurgh~."

"Before you said you 'created some vases'. From what?" the warlock pestered, gesturing around her.

Some colour returned to the guests cheeks as he explained he had the ability to create a variety of things, such as vases. To demonstrate, he conjured a large brown vase with a blue triangle pattern running around the rim. But to show why there weren't any fragments around the room, he let it go to dematerialize.

The excess screaming was him screaming like a little bitch while the bats flew around his room.

The guards thought the reasoning to be sound and accepted the explanation. But that was only because the guards turned up nothing out of the ordinary in the room.

Just as they were leaving, there was a knock at the door followed by a maid calling out that she'd brought dinner for the boy.

* * *

 **Interlude; Garmadon**

"Alright, we're sorry for troubling you," the warlock announced as she and the others made way for the maid to lay the tray of food onto the coffee table.

There wasn't anything spoken after that point. The five of us remained in silence with a few of the guards still glancing around the room to make sure nothing was out of place.

'Please don't see it, please don't see it, please don't see it-.'

A knight's gaze stopped at something behind me, above the bed I was standing in front of. I dared not turn around less I raise suspicion, the tensions already so thick in here I could cut it with a butter knife. Maybe something bigger…..

"If that'll be all, I shall leave. Feel free to call if you need anything," said the maid, giving a bow before leaving.

The soldiers followed suit without much fuss, but that one knight kept his gaze fixated on whatever it was behind me until he got past the door.

"You all take care now," I called as the door closed behind them. Just like that, I was once again alone in the room, but this time holding my breath in anxiety. "Buurrghh~, oh man that was close~."

Finally having the chance, I turned around to see what had grabbed the attention of that Slane Theocracy knight.

"Let's see here-oh~," floating above my bed, just under the ceiling was a hair-line tear in the air and was slowly getting bigger. As it did, black ashes sprinkled from the crack onto the sheets below.

 _Sshhhshzzzett._

Suddenly the tear split through the air like an ark starting at the ceiling and Zesshi's unconscious body, her scythe and my head's ashes came tumbling out. She landed on the bed which seemed to envelop her and then hailing by ashes, but the scythe bounced off the bed spinning as it fell before stabbing itself though my right foot. The non-metal one!

"Duurrgh~, son of a bitch," I cursed as quietly as I could so as not to attract the attention I had just fended off.

I mean, how could I explain it?

'I knocked out your kingdoms secret weapon, wrapped her up in a materialized cloak of invisibility based of a Lego Harry Potter set with the ashes of my severed head and nailed it to the ceiling like a hammock.'

I'd never get out of here without blowing up the cathedral and risking the collapse of this world, and me with it!

Yanking the scythe from my foot with a jerk, I hissed a bit in pain before giving a light sigh of relief as my reaction healing took over. I'd felt pain worse than this before, but a scythe through the foot still freaking hurts!

"How does she lift this thing, anyway?" I mused, lifting the scythe and attempting to re-enact the wave Zesshi did when I saw her on the roof.

But when I tried holding its end at the bottom I couldn't maintain it without charging my muscle cells a little for strength.

"Guess she really is strong, but little Shally's stronger~."

"That's an interesting declaration," suddenly the weapon was snatched out of my grasp. "This 'little Shally', just how strong is she?"

Turning back to the bed, Zesshi was now sitting up wide awake and slugging the scythe over her shoulder like it was nothing.

"When did you wake up?"

"Just now actually. What did you do to me anyway?" she asked, rubbing a pinky in her ear. "My ears are still ringing like a constant sparrow."

"Oh that? Sonic waves," I responded materializing the cylindrical speaker. Zesshi flinched as I held it up. "I call this a sonic interfectorem, or sonic killer in Latin. Nasty pieces of tech that accelerates targeted molecules to the point where they not only produce sound but become tiny spears that really mess with the ear drums. I busted my own just by using them, if you can still hear that means your drums are a lot tougher than any ordinary humans."

" _Hmph_. The idea of lumping me together with ordinary humans is insulting," Zesshi's eyes quickly became daggers like she just remembered something that really pissed her off. "Before I passed out, I remember you called me a ha…half elf. Why would you insult me further with such baseless accusations?"

As Zesshi tightened the grip on her scythe she lightly combed her fingers through her hair, I could tell if I didn't give her a likable answer she might cut my head off again. I reactivated my eye, but not too strongly in case it went blind.

"I-um….," I murmured, stroking the empty air beside my ear, insinuating the hair covering Zesshi's elven ears that I saw though before. "I don't want to really talk about that right now-."

Zesshi swung her scythe right at my neck aiming for a decapitation again. Seeing it in slow motion I reacted by holding up my left arm and materializing a steel gauntlet with blades on either side before halting the molecular movement in the air next to it to create ice.

The blade hacked through the ice and wedged itself into a side blade. A bit of the scythe managed to piece the gauntlet and was cutting into my flesh, causing a thin line of blood to run out.

'Knew it! I ef'n knew it. She must really have something against her elven heritage if she was willing to cut my head off again.'

"Alright fine! You weren't covering your ears as well as you probably thought when you became visible," I straight up lied. "Happy?"

Zesshi cringed at my answer before yanking her scythe out of my arm and going back to combing her hair with her fingers again. The wound in my arm healed almost instantly once the blade was gone.

'I so suck at defence. Good at offence, but the only protection I have in combat is what I make~.'

" _Sigh,_ anyway I have something to ask you. If the Slane Theocracy were to investigate a new set of weapons, where would they take them?"

Zesshi's expression of anger slightly faltered at my sudden change of topic. She seemed to have immediately lost all interest but maintained some daggers in her eyes.

"What about it? It's not like it's something that important," Zesshi monotoned, glancing away.

"Please tell me, Zesshi. The Theocracy stole some weapons from me that they really shouldn't have."

She just closed her eyes again, giving a light groan. "Is it possible to put you in a state of permanent death if I keep my scythe imbedded in your head? Or would it be more efficient to just drain you of all your blood?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear you threaten my wellbeing and instead offer you a deal-."

'The lightsabres Thousand leagues Astrologer and her team took from me aren't something this world should hold. If my blood is washed off them they'll disappear. But I'm sure the Theocracy will learn not to do that to the second after doing it to the first.'

"-Right now I'm planning on leaving this nation after I do my business. If I get caught, the higher-ups will do whatever they see fit to stop me. Thus, escalating to a full out fight. So if you help me find my weapons I promise to give you a rematch and this time, I'll bring all that I am into the fight."

A spark flashed in Zesshi's eyes. It was small, but definitely there.

"I could just tell the guards you're planning on robbing them and running away. You might not even be that strong and your cheap tricks won't work a second time on me."

I felt a swell of laughter coming up from deep within side me. The proposition I showed before was able to light a spark, but if I want a raging inferno of a response, I'll need to give her something Zesshi would really go for.

"Tell me, a few days ago the Black Scripture, the most powerful military might in the Theocracy ran away from a vampire after someone named….Lady Kiare, I think, used '[Down fall of castle and country]'. Your captain claimed that the vampire was too strong for them but not for you. But guess who killed her~hehe," I announced with a wide grin on my face. "None other than yours truly. Go ahead and ask the Captain for a description of her and 11th seat Thousand leagues Astrologer for the details of my fight. So that means I'm stronger than her, and if you beat me, then you're stronger than her. But if I beat you, then she's stronger than you. So what do you say?"

'I based my rambling on what I remember from the anime. But if my and Alex's interference changed the convergence of events even by a sliver, then the captain telling Zesshi about Shalltear probably never have happened. Plus this proposition has so many holes in it it'd be mistaken for swiss cheese~.'

Zesshi just sat there, starring at me. Clearly she was thinking it over as to how I knew about a little conversation she had with her captain while I wasn't even there.

"…. _siighh~…_ Even if I ask both of them, I'm going to get the same response, aren't I?" Zesshi breathed, closing her eyes and going deeper into thought. "Alright. The cardinals never told me not to help you find your way around the cathedral, and you somehow knew about me before-hand. But once you find those weapons I'd expect you to fight me with everything you have and show me the power that made the cardinals believe you to be a god-kin."

" _Hn-hn-hn,_ oh I intend to have fun with it~."

* * *

 **Interlude; Alex**

"Did he just pull a fast one on Zesshi?"

From the office of a Lords manor in the Slane Theocracy's capital, Alex was lying back in a leather chair with his eyes closed, empty city streets behind large windows behind him. His cloak and armour rested on a stand in the corner, leaving him in a long-sleeved red shirt and grey shorts.

During the confusion of the battle back in Diagel, Alex had decided to make some headway to the nations capital and used an earth eater to tunnel his way to a safe enough distance where he could just stroll right into the capital. Though on his way he did see a small army charging towards town from said capital.

The authorities hid it when his brother came into town, but after Alex entered he was absolutely disgusted by what he saw.

No matter where he looked, demi-humans, particularly elves, of all ages and gender were dragged through the dirt, wipped on command and being put through manual labour even while heavily gasping for breath.

'Slavery at it's finest,' he had thought appalled.

He hated murder, but he despised discriminative exploitment even more. Fuelling his desire to see his mission through to the end, Alex set out to find one with high power over the city. Someone who knows the ins and outs of the place would be helpful.

They'd also have to be someone who wouldn't be questioned out right from acting a bit strange for a day or two.

Hence how he came to the mansion he resided in.

 _Knock-knock._

He opened both his eyes to a knock at the door.

"Enter."

The doors opened and a tall woman with black hair trimmed above her shoulders and dressed in a blue uniform with a dark green strait dress reaching to her ankles walked in. With a large scroll tucked under her arm, her eyes gleamed a faint blue, a biproduct of being influenced by the [soul merge] technique.

"You know you could just walk in. I mean we're both the same person," Alex greeted the mansions lord, sitting up in the nobles chair.

"True, but what's to say that my own privacy shouldn't be respected," she responded, standing before the desk. "Speaking of~."

"Oh, that," Alex said, rubbing his eyes. "I've looked through the eyes of the bugs in James's room and-."

"He's not planning on leaving?"

"Actually, he is. He bought the ruse quite quickly and plans to fetch something the Theocracy took from him before leaving. Though those old farts have two minds about it. They're considering long term plans for their defences while also expecting an attack tomorrow."

"Hah-Hah, arr~. Ah that's right, I've found that map we were talking about," she said, pulling out the scroll from under her arm before flattening it out over the desk, revealing it to be a map of the entire city with a few details beyond the boundaries. "Before in our strikes, we attacked from below in key locations to promote confusion and then came in from the outside to attack them on multiple fronts. But this time, I think we should do something differently."

"How so, are their defences too strong or something?"

"If utilized efficiently, yes, and," she pointed to the centre cathedral on the map. "There's an under-ground network of tunnels beneath the cathedral. They're mostly used for research in magic, keeping secrets and other shady businesses. I don't know how much it spreads out below the city, but the earliest documents I could find discussed about the underground network expanding."

"It would definitely be helpful if we could collect all that research to use against other nations. Could find something that even that Barharuth empire wizard would find interesting. I think his name was…..Fluder?"

"My thoughts exactly, hence why I was thinking we shouldn't use earth eaters to come up from below, instead let's have them run under the walls to break them down. We'll use wyverns to do an aerial assault followed by the outside assault. But as the spear head for the mission, I believe that we should infest the city with leeches, insects and other small animals that would unnerve the soldiers."

Alex folded his arms at the plan.

"From what Shredder said, those animals from the lizardmen swamp won't be here until sometime tonight at their current speed. We lost most of the woodland creatures from the forest of Tob and beyond in that failed purging mission. Because we need to replenish our forces I've had Shredder increase his [beast control] to even more countries. But because we'll need strong forces he's personally gone to increase his influence on stronger monsters with some backup. This is of course excluding Nazarick after out failed attempt to round some up."

"So we should expect, say, a dragon or two in the morning?"

"Nya-ha-ha. If things go well, we might have a flock."

The nobles face went grim at a thought, the blue in her eyes losing some of its sparkle.

"I've looked through this noble women's memories. She wasn't one who abused her authority like most in the Re-Estize kingdom, and the people she watched over rarely did anything evil. Aside from the inhumane inhuman discrimination. So if possible, can we not kill too many civilians?"

Alex's face too lost some joyous wonder in commanding a flock of mythical beasts, grimly looking down at the map. He turned around to look out the window to the city buildings below. A few people were now scuttering through the streets in lamp light.

"If at all possible, I'd like to avoid too much innocent blood shed. Not just because I don't like the idea, but because we need to instil as much fear as possible. With the death of the cardinals, we'll insert new copies of me as the new figure heads and make everyone believe that their gods forsook them, but the one true god showed divine light and saved them all. After that we'll do a fake-out, withdraw our forces and leave the new cardinals to deal with the rest. The rest of the city will latch onto that new hope and, hopefully that will be enough belief in God to at least appease Vosdulite."

"….That's not what I meant."

Alex's fingers clenched into fists.

"I knoww~."

* * *

 **….Later.**


End file.
